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Answered

Scratch disks are write protected or unavailable?

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
April 2, 2014
21 replies
97130 views

Premier Pro on a MAC.

Error code:

Scratch disks are write protected or unavailable. To open this project,, the scratch disks will be set to your Documents folder. Would you like to continue?

I don't know what to do, i've googled this issue and can't find any solutions.

/ Andreas

Correct answer Javid5FD8

Hi All,

I was going crazy with this issue bc nothing worked for me (trashing prefs etc). What did work, though, was giving Prem 22 'Full Disk Access'.

System pref > Security and Privacy > Privacy

Click 'Full Disk Access' and make sure your premiere is checked.

I reopened Premiere with the same project file that was previously unusable, and wallah, opened normally, everything linked!

I hope this helps someone.

T

terry_7973

Participant

It's January of 2025 and I have a new MacBook Pro running Sequoia 15.2 and the newest Premiere Pro 25.1.0 and I get the above mentioned error,

Scratch disks are write protected or unavailable. To open this project,, the scratch disks will be set to your Documents folder. Would you like to continue?

This happens When I hit the in-app tutorial under the help menu. Yes, I am brand new to Premiere

I have tried the solutions mentioned here to no success. The hold the option button down to reset the settings doesn't work, the full disk access doesn't work, I have uninstalled and reinstalled and no joy. Any suggestions for this decade? THX!

L

laurap15576738

Participating Frequently

Hi Terry,

I offered this workaround a few years ago, after I couldn't find anything else that worked (original post with vid is still in the thread).

Please let me know if this helps:

This happened to me when I upgraded both my Macbook Pro & Premiere Pro version to 2022. I have 1.9 TB of audio/video/etc on an external hard drive that is the location for my project files and source content for this series of projects.

I believe I tried all the above solutions, without success. I DID find a workaround, however!

I created a new project on my laptop with PP 2022, with its native settings, but created a new folder on my desktop for the new project. To keep myself organized, I used the same project name, but appended it to "2022".

Once the new project was open, I went to my hard drive & dragged the old .prproj file into the import box. I left it at default settings and clicked "ok". It took a few minutes for it to finish - you may see the dreaded spinning ball o'doom because it's taxing on even my new, robust system.

But: ALL the sequences, original audio files & original video files were brought in, in their appropriate bins, ready to edit!

I chose to keep all source files on my external hard drive - but, there is an option to create a folder on your computer with all the assets.

I saved this new file & repeated the process with all the projects on the drive. All successful!

I'm attaching a video of the process (cutting out over a minute of the lag time).

Hope this solution works for anyone else who had tried all of the above! It didn't fix the problem, but it's a great workaround.

T

terry_7973

Participant

Thanks LauraP, I don't have an big external drive yet for this and was trying to wait for a few thunderbolt 5 versions to get on the market, but I might just get a 40GBs T4 drive to try this out. Thank you for sharing your innovative workaround for this issue

A

Andrey_a77

Participant

I had this error as well and all different "solutions" I could find on the internet didn't work for me (I am on iMac 21). And then I fixed the error myself. The error was popping up for the "default" project.

I did the following to fix it:
1. Find the Scratch folder. (for me it was in my "User/Documents/Adobe/..." path
2. Right-click on the "Adobe" folder in the "User/Documents/" path and click on "Properties"
3. In the Properties pane go to the Access settings in the bottom
4. Open the "lock" in the lower-right corner to be able to apply any changes. Make sure the Access settings showing are correct and you have the "read & wright" access to this folder
5. Click on the "3 dots in a circle" sign in the lower-left next to the "-" sign and select "apply to all inbound folders"

Now all the access is updeted for the folders within the "User/Documents/Adobe" folder, including the Scratch folders. Restart Premiere Pro and no more "Scratch disk" error should pop up.

K

Kartikey5E99

Participant

so this finallyy helped mannnn

you just have to go to user/documents/adobe/premiere pro/ 24.0 or whatever version you have the folder will be there like 22.0 or 23.0 and then get info of that foder by cmd+i and then unlock the lock on lower right and change read only to read and write and magiccc the problems gone

whitneyl39007655

Participant

Thanks, that worked!

P

Paul292721531pqt

Participant

One of my seemingly unrelated hard disks was full. I freed some storage space, and this fixed the problem.

E

Esteban2803614099fg

Participant

You saved my a** man! I really really appreciate that! I was going crazy too! Thaaaaaaanks, cheers!

L

laurap15576738

Participating Frequently

Hi Andreas_St1

I had tried this solution, but for whatever reason it didn't work for me. Maybe it was an issue with my hard drive. I ended up using a workaround - hopefully if someone has the same challenges, the workaround will help them (also on this thread).

N

Nicholas253580665dn2

Participant

So I have the answer for one version of this issue. If you have google drive setup up mirroring an actual hard drive on your computer. Sometimes premiere likes to be a brat and default the scratch disks to that specific drive which is quite litterally impossible to work in every capacity. So just switch the drive and everything will work fine

chadiwack

Known Participant

Good afternoon Andreas, I was wondering if you ever found a fix for this. I am having the same problem. I updated from Big Sur to Monterey and have been having this problem ever since. I can't access any of my external drive premiere projects.

dukensa85596487

Participant

Hello all,

I have just have recently encountered this problem (2019 MAC) and none of thse solutions were working for me. Finally, I was able to resolve by allowing full disk access to Premiere Pro. How: 1. Go into your settings. 2. click on Security & Privacy. 3. In that window you'll find tabs lableled: "General, FileVault, Firewall, and Privacy", click on the Privacy tab. 4. On the left of this window you should find file icons. Scroll down to "Full Disck Access" and click on it. 5. On the right of window under the message that reads: "Allow the apps below to access data like Mail..." scroll down until you find Adobe Premiere Pro and make sure the box is checked. This should do the trick.

bflintphoto

Participant

Thank you for posting this! My computer automatically this morning and every time I would try and open a project it would give me the same scratch disk error and this fixed it.

One thing to note that I had to do, that others may have to as well, is when you get into your "Full Disk Access" list you may need to add Premier to that list and make sure the box is checked. That is what I had to do and now everything is working great again. Thanks again!

chadiwack

Known Participant

BRO!!! 1000% grateful you posted this.