Scratch disks are full

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
July 5, 2021
2 replies
443 views

My computer gives me a message stating currently selected scratch disks are full. I've cleared a lot of files from my computer and I currently have 80gigs of free space. Clearing space didn't fix a thing and I can't actually launch Photoshop to fix anything. The scratch disk box that comes up tell me their full says I only have 3.51GB of free space on start up. How can I fix it if I can't launch Photoshop? Does anyone have any suggestions????

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Conrad_C

Community Expert

What is the file size of the document you are trying to open in Photoshop?

The reason I ask is that the scratch space required depends on the size of the document, independently and in addition to the system requirements.

For example, small web graphics documents (for example, 800 x 600 pixels) may open easily in 80GB of free space on your scratch disk. But a document with large pixel dimensions (for example 8200 x 5500 pixels from a 45-megapixel camera), with many layers, masks, Smart Objects, etc. may be too large to open with 80GB of free space on your scratch disk. If you are working with large files, it is possible that hundreds of GB of free space might be needed on your scratch disk.

To avoid these problems, for many years I have used Photoshop with fast external storage connected that is at least 500GB, and assigned to store nothing but scratch or cache files for various photo and video editing applications.

Because so many pro applications and macOS itself can generate large temporary files, I do not like to run my MacBook Pro with less than 100GB free space on the internal storage, and I like to aim for over 200GB free.

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Alison5E39Author

Participant

Thank you, it's true, I don't always have that much space free. I think I figured out the problem though. Photoshop wouldn't open because I had some large files stored in iMovie - I guess it uses the same scratch disk because once I cleared those I was able to open Photoshop. It was just frustrating after moving a lot of gigs of files that I had on my desktop and in my documents that it had no effect whatsoever on whether or not I could open photoshop. I was actually only trying to pull a small screenshot .png file into photoshop when I got the scratch disk message, though I do often work with large image files. (But, like I said, not this time...)

Thank you again for your thorough answer, I will be more careful about how much I fill up my computer from now on!

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

[Moderator moved from Using the Community (forums) to Photoshop.]

@Alison5E39,

Evidently, you don't have enough physical memory to run Photoshop. Move your work files to externals. Uninstall non-essential software to free up HD space.

Please ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements to run Creative Cloud + OS + all other apps you use. Check each one.
- https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/system-requirements.html
- https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html
- https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

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Alison5E39Author

Participant

Thank you for your help. I've moved a wole lot of my files to an external. My computer exceeds the minimum system requirements, but I still can't even open photoshop to change my scratch disk preferences. Nothing seems to have an effect on the amount of scratch disk space. I'm not sure what to do next.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

Which version of Photoshop?

Which operating system?

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

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