Why aren't Photoshop Temp files showing up in tmp folder?

[Leslie5E49]

Hello,

I'm currently trying to find the Photoshop Temp files so I can delete them, in order to fix the "scratch disk full" error that comes up whenever I try to open a very large file. Every resource for Macs I've found says to go to the tmp folder and I'm on a MacBook Pro, 12.1 Monterey and have located the tmp folder, but there's no folder for Photoshop Temp, and I can't seem to find it anywhere else, either.

Is there somewhere else the Photoshop Temp files could be hiding? As far as I can see, there's no other way to fix the error (I've already freed up disk space, and it only occurs with one specific 1GB file).

Thanks!

[Jeff Arola]

How much free space do you have?

Photoshop scratch disk files are deleted when you quit photoshop, so the only way you would have leftover scratch disk files is if photoshop crashed.

[Leslie5E49]

On the "About This Mac" tab, it says I have 168GB left.

[Test Screen Name]

What do the scratch disk preferences say for free space - is it the same?

what is your image size in pixels? Use Image >Image size to check. 

[Leslie5E49]

On the Scratch Disk Preferences, it says I have 97.5 GB left. The image size of the file I'm trying to open is 4583x2762 px.

[davescm]

The scratch file will be in the root folder of your designated scratch disk. It is deleted when Photoshop closes. If it remains after closing it is safe to delete, but do not delete it with Photoshop open.

Dave

[Leslie5E49]

Do you know where the root folder is/what it's called? Thank you.

[davescm]

It just means the top level folder on that disk. So if scratch is set to D: then the root folder is D:\

If you are getting this message with one file of 4583x2762, how many layers are in the file and are any of them smart objects? On the face of it the image size is not particularly large, but if you have hidden pixels e.g. after cropping with delete pixels unchecked, smart objects containing larger image sizes/multiple layers and lots of pixel layers then you could indeed run out of scratch space.

Dave

[Leslie5E49]

Does the top level folder just mean the largest folder? I have all hidden folders turned on, and here's how the Macintosh HD looks:

As for the file itself, I'm not sure, since I haven't opened it in a while, but there's an immense amount of layers for sure. I don't think a great deal of them (or any of them) are smart objects, since it's all drawn. I never cropped it, however. I'm just not sure how a 1GB file could need more than 97GB of scratch disk space to open. Am I going to be able to open it at all?

[Trevor.Dennis]

The root means they are not in a folder. They are located directly in the drive as below.  There are no folders involved.  

[Leslie5E49]

Okay, thank you. So since the Temp folders aren't there, is there any other place they could be? Or is it just essentially impossible for me to delete the files?

[Test Screen Name]

It's not possible to delete the files while Photoshop is running, because Photoshop is using them. It's not necessary to delete them because Photoshop removes them when it has finished.

You need to look at WHY Photoshop needs an unually large amount of scratch space for what sounds a comparatively small file. If a file is large, then it's normal for Photoshop to need many hundreds of GB for scratch space.

So, please tell us about the file. Did you make it? What format is it? Did it ever open on your own computer?

[D Fosse]

That's right, agree with Test Screen Name. This is a red herring. It's highly unlikely that this is where the real problem is.

You need to do a thorough housecleaning on your system drive. On Windows there is an excellent little utility called WinDirStat, which shows you exactly what fills up your drive and where it is. There is a Mac equivalent, but can't recall what it's called. Than add a second drive so you have something to go on.

The thing is, if you have so little space that opening a single file chokes Photoshop, the problem goes deeper than an orphaned temp file. Then you need to approach this systematically and do a full cleanout.

(The only scenario I can think of where the scratch file alone would be the culprit, is if you by accident created an abnormally huge file and Photoshop immediately crashed. Then this huge scratch file would be left behind. If the application closes normally, the scratch file is automatically deleted.)

< late edits for clarity>

[Leslie5E49]

I've downloaded Disk Inventory X, I think that's the Mac equivalent of what you were talking about. I located the document, and it is taking up a bit of space, but not a gigantic amount of space compared to anything else. Here's a screenshot from it (the box highlighted in yellow is the document):

I have a Seagate drive that has a lot of space on it, should I just hook it up to my computer and use that to open the file?

[Leslie5E49]

I did create the file; it's just a regular RGB .psd file as far as I can tell. When I first created it, I kept it open for a very long time and kept adding onto it. Again, there's a TON of layers on it. I used the file to design and create clothing designs with many small variations between them. If I ever had to close Photoshop and re-open the file, it would take a very long time (up to 10 minutes) to open it back again. The last time I was able to successfully re-open it was this past fall.