How To Clean Out Scratch Disk On Mac

Motion picture this: you're editing a picture show in Photoshop, and everything looks good and shine. Only as you brand more adjustments and add more layers, Photoshop suddenly begins to lag, and you eventually get an error that reads "Could not complete your request considering the scratch disks are full."

And when y'all close and reopen the app, you lot get another fault that says "Could non initialize photoshop considering the scratch disks are full." What exactly do these error letters mean? What is a scratch deejay? How does it get filled upwards? Why is the fault interrupting your workflow or preventing you lot from opening Photoshop? And near importantly, how practice you prepare it?

In this guide, we'll explicate everything y'all need to know about Photoshop scratch disks:

What does scratch disk mean?
What causes the scratch disk mistake?
How to set Photoshop scratch disk errors on Mac

What is a scratch disk?

By default, active applications store temporary files on your Mac's RAM (random access memory). With Photoshop, yet, things are a little dissimilar. Like other apps, Photoshop stores temporary project files and data on your RAM, but if it fills that RAM, it will utilize one of your hard disks to store any extra data. This makeshift retentiveness is known as a "scratch disk."

Why practise I get a "scratch disks are full" error?

As you create and edit images in Photoshop, the app simultaneously creates a agglomeration of temporary enshroud files in the background. These files aid Photoshop run faster, simply they can chop-chop accrue, running into tens or even hundreds of gigabytes, and filling upwardly your hard drive in the process. This affects Photoshop'south functioning in the long run and can lead to the scratch disk mistake.

You lot may too get this error if the temporary files aren't removed from the scratch disk when you finish using the app. Typically, Photoshop, just like any other app, should purge temporary files from the RAM and scratch disk portions of your Mac's hard drive. But that's not ever the case. If Photoshop crashes during usage or you strength quit it, the temporary files remain and accumulate.

To reiterate, the Photoshop scratch disk error occurs because:

There is limited retention (RAM) available for Photoshop on your Mac
The temporary virtual memory (scratch deejay) partition of your Mac's hard disk or SSD is also maxed out and unavailable

How to fix the "scratch disks are full" mistake

Adjacent, let's await at how to clear a scratch deejay on your Mac. We're confident that at to the lowest degree 1 of these 7 troubleshooting methods should practice the flim-flam.

ane. Complimentary up boosted deejay space

The Photoshop "scratch disk full" error normally presents itself when your hd is low on storage space. You tin can gratuitous upwardly deejay space on your Mac by removing duplicate files, clearing browser caches, emptying the Trash, deleting unused applications (and their leftover files), and so on.

But there is an easier way: you can use MacKeeper. As well equally being security and Mac cleaner software, it has a built-in Indistinguishable Finder, which can help you lot find and remove duplicate photos with just a few clicks.

Download and install MacKeeper
Go to the Safe Cleanup tab
Click Start Scan
Look for the scan results
Click Clean Junk Files

Note: For Macs with two (or more) difficult drives, the scratch disk is housed on the drive where macOS is installed.

2. Articulate your Photoshop enshroud

By deleting Photoshop's cache, y'all're essentially clearing the scratch disk. This will resolve the "scratch disk is full" error and get Photoshop working correctly once again. The only downside of clearing the app'south cache is that previous versions of your projects volition be removed from your Mac.

Before you go on, brand sure you salvage electric current projects so you don't lose contempo changes.

Hither's how to clear Photoshop'southward cache:

Launch Photoshop and open up a project
From the menu, get to Edit > Purge > All. This will clear all the various Photoshop caches
Click OK on the confirmation prompt
Echo these steps for other projects, and check if that resolves the 'scratch disk is full' error.

Although we chose to articulate all our caches here, there are v options when it comes to Photoshop caches. Here'south what these cache categories contain:

Clipboard: This is a record of things (files, elements, images, etc.) that y'all copy. You won't be able to paste that data after clearing this cache
Histories: This temporary file holds the previous version(s) of your projection. Deleting this cache file means you lot'll no longer take admission to changes made to your project
All: This option deletes all Photoshop'due south cache files
Video Cache: Holds changes made to a video file or project. You tin't restore changes made to a video project when you delete this cache

Notation: If an detail/category is greyed out, that signifies that the enshroud has already been cleared.

3. Delete your Photoshop temporary files

In the rare example that you cannot clear Photoshop's enshroud using the method above, y'all can manually delete the app'southward temporary files from Finder. It requires more effort, but information technology gets the job done. Plus, it'll resolve the errors relating to full scratch disks.

Of import: Before deleting these temporary files, brand certain y'all save any ongoing projects and close Photoshop.

1. Click Become on the menu bar and select Go to Folder

2. Type /tmp in the dialog box, and click Go

That volition open up a new Finder window containing your Mac's temporary files and folders. Now, carefully peruse the folders and look out for folders or files starting with Photoshop Temp and a bunch of numbers at the cease. Temporary files have a .tmp extension, and so make sure you're indeed deleting temporary files, not other file types.

A typical Photoshop temporary file will take this structure: Photoshop Temp78403. Right-click on these folders/files and move them to Trash.

Delete as many temporary files every bit you tin can find. Launch Photoshop over again and the error should no longer pop upwards on your screen.

four. Move Photoshop scratch d1isk to an external hard drive

If y'all'd rather not delete files on your hard disk drive, an effective workaround is to configure Photoshop's scratch disk partition on an external disk. There'due south a catch, though: you demand to have this external deejay plugged into your Mac at all times — or whenever you need to employ Photoshop. Hither's how to get information technology washed.

i. Launch Photoshop and click Photoshop on the menu bar

2. Get to Preferences > Scratch Disks

3. In the Scratch Disk Preferences window, choose the external drive you want to use as the scratch deejay and uncheck the congenital-in hard deejay with depression storage space

four. Click OK to keep

Forcefulness quit Photoshop (employ the Command + Choice + Esc shortcut), and reopen the app. Photoshop will now utilize the external hd as the scratch disk.

If Photoshop won't open due to the 'scratch deejay is full' error, follow the steps below to change Photoshop scratch disk settings without opening the app:

1. Launch Photoshop, and hold the Command + Option keys immediately

That should launch the Scratch Deejay Preferences window.

2. Add the external hard drive as a scratch deejay, and click OK to proceed

Remember, you'll need to have the external disk plugged into your Mac. Otherwise, yous'll get the scratch deejay is full error.

5. Reset Photoshop preferences

Past resetting Photoshop's preferences, you're basically restoring the app to mill settings. This has the potential to fix issues preventing Photoshop from working correctly, including the "scratch disks are total" fault. At that place are two means to reset Photoshop's preferences: using keyboard shortcuts or from Photoshop'southward preference menu.

Note: Resetting Photoshop preferences ways you'll demand to reconfigure certain options (e.g. plug-in presets, colour settings and cursor options) when you relaunch the app.

Reset Photoshop preferences using a keyboard shortcut

You can reset Photoshop using a keyboard shortcut, and it works for all versions of Photoshop on Mac. Make sure you close or strength-quit Photoshop before you proceed.

ane. Outset, make sure you close or forcefulness-quit Photoshop

2. Afterward, hold the following keys: Command + Option + Shift

three. Without releasing the keys, launch Photoshop

iv. A dialog box asking if yous desire to delete Photoshop's Settings File will pop upwardly on the screen. Click Yes to proceed

Relaunch Photoshop and check if that fixes the fault.

Reset Photoshop from the preference menu

Before you lot proceed, make sure you salve electric current or ongoing projects so y'all don't lose recent or unsaved changes.

i. From the menu, become to Photoshop > Preferences > Full general

2. In the General tab, click Reset Preferences On Quit

3. Click OK on the dialog box asking "Are y'all sure you desire to reset preferences when quitting Photoshop?" to proceed

four. Close and relaunch Photoshop to reset the app'southward preferences

half-dozen. Disable auto-recovery in Photoshop

By default, Photoshop saves your files and projects automatically at intervals from 5 minutes to one hr. Although this characteristic comes with its benefits, it causes Photoshop to consume a lot of memory and hard disk space.

Disabling auto-recovery volition reduce the amount of storage used by Photoshop, thereby freeing upwardly infinite for temporary files (or scratch files). If Photoshop is quite stable on your Mac and information technology barely crashes, disable the machine-recovery feature. Retrieve to e'er save your projects before y'all close Photoshop so yous don't lose recent changes or modifications.

To disable automobile-recovery, launch Photoshop:

1. Go to Photoshop > Preferences > File Handling in the chief menu

2. Uncheck the option that reads Automatically Salve Recovery Data Every

automatically save recovery information every option tickes

three. Click OK to save your changes

Fix scratch deejay errors with ease

The major solution to scratch deejay errors is to free up additional space on your Mac. Doing this manually can go exhausting, so nosotros recommend y'all employ an app like MacKeeper to free up space on your Mac within minutes. MacKeeper has a 'Safety Cleanup' tool that finds and removes unnecessary enshroud files, trash and junk at the click of a push button:

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