Unable to start Photoshop because virtual memory is full

[citronsorbet]

I have recently installed Photoshop and when I try to start it I get an error message that says that Photoshop can't start because the virtual memory is full!

[Guest]

Hi

You need to provide more information, what version of Photoshop and what OS do you have, also please provide your PC system specs

[citronsorbet]

Version of Photoshop: latest (2019)

OS: Windows 10 Pro

RAM: 16 GB

CPU: Core i7-2700 (3,5 GHz)

Disk: 2,7 Gb emty space

[melissapiccone]

How much empty space is that? 27GB or 2.7GB? Either way, it's not much. Clean out your hard drive and make some room. You should always have at least 25% of your hard drive free...

[citronsorbet]

I meant 2.7 GB, but now it has apparently increased to 5.9 GB.

[teachbit]

Photoshop preferences increase the amount of RAM that you allow it to use, if you have an external hard drive that is largely empty select that for your scratch disk.

[citronsorbet]

I can't do that since I'm not able to start Photoshop!

[citronsorbet · Accepted solution]

The problem was solved by freeing up more disk space!

I now have about 10 GB free.

[natalias3335497]

Im having the same problem, and i have like 11gb, what can i do!?

[D Fosse]

The message means what it says. You need to understand that 11GB in this context is nothing. That's dangerously low - not just for Photoshop, but for your entire system.

Photoshop moves large amounts of data around, and the working data can grow to orders of magnitude larger than the file itself. A scratch file in excess of 11GB is not uncommon. I would never work with a scratch disk of less than about 200 - 300 GB free.

In short, you need to free up space. I'd recommend a utility such as WinDirStat that shows you in a graphic interface exactly what fills up your disk and where it is.

[natalias3335497]

SO, what can I do if my MAC is 125 gb? um supp ti to have iCloud Drive, but it actually takes more than 42gb plus all the apps, pictures , etc

[D Fosse]

A 125GB system drive is a problem waiting to happen right from the start. If that's what you have, you need to be very careful to clean it out at intervals.

What fills up your drive is under your user account. What goes in there never goes out again, and it contains all kinds of settings and caches related to your installed software. Uninstalling an application does not remove these settings and caches, and they just accumulate.

iCloud is completely irrelevant here, it's no help - unless you have images and documents you can dump. You need space on your physical system drive.

I recommended WinDirStat, but that's Win only. I think there's something similar for Mac, but can't recall the name.

[Lumigraphics]

Apple shipped lots of computers with 128GB flash storage. That's fine IF you manage it ok.

Get an external USB hard drive. A 4TB drive (32x the size of your internal storage) is about US$100. Move files off the internal storage to the external drive.

[D Fosse]

It goes without saying that you can't store image files and documents on a 120GB drive, at least not if you have a reasonable amount of them. I didn't even consider that, and just assumed they were somewhere else.

The point I'm trying to make is that the drive can still fill up quickly, with all the stuff that normally accumulates under the user account. The problem here is that the user account is by default a hidden folder in both macOS and Windows. You don't see it. All you see is your drive steadily filling up. If that happens, and you don't see any immediate explanation for it - that's where it is. The good news is that very little of it is critical, and most of it can be deleted with no ill effects.