Persistent "Scratch disks are write-protected or unavailable" error on macOS - with every production

Report · Jul 25, 2025

Hi everyone,

I'm experiencing a persistent issue with Premiere Pro on macOS where I get the "scratch disks are write-protected or unavailable" error every time I try to open any project inside a Premiere Production. This happens consistently across all projects within the production, not just specific ones.

Important context:

These are projects located inside a Premiere Production, not standalone projects
Premiere is successfully locating audio previews and auto save files to my freshly formatted external SSD
The scratch disk location appears to be working correctly for these functions, yet I still get the error on every project opening

What I've already tried:

Reset Premiere Pro preferences (held Option while launching)
Verified destination drive permissions in Finder (shows Read & Write for my user)
Granted Full Disk Access to Adobe Premiere Pro in System Settings → Privacy & Security
Checked available disk space (plenty available on freshly formatted external SSD)
Quit and relaunched Premiere multiple times

System details:

macOS version: 15.5
Premiere Pro version: 25.3.0
Drive setup: Freshly formatted external SSD APFS

The error appears immediately when trying to open any project within the Production, even ones that worked previously. What's puzzling is that Premiere can clearly access the external SSD for audio previews and auto saves, but throws the scratch disk error when opening projects. Since I've already gone through the standard troubleshooting steps for permissions and preferences, I'm wondering if there's something specific about how Productions handle scratch disk settings.

I have previously imported an existing premiere project to the production. Could it be possible that premiere still keeps the scratch disk settings of the previous production? Even though I moved the existing clips and timelines to fresh projects created inside the production?

Has anyone experienced this specifically with projects inside Productions rather than standalone projects? Are there different scratch disk permissions or settings that apply to Production-based projects?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Report · Aug 08, 2025

Hey Peter,

Sorry for the issue with scratch disks! Are you still getting the same error messages? Are you the owner of these projects and Productions, or are these files shared with you from someone on your team?

Let us know, we'll see how we can help.

Caroline

Report · Aug 21, 2025

Thanks for your help, yes, I am the owner.