Are you regularly using Adobe Photoshop, perhaps for your graphic design tasks? Chances are, at one point or another, you will run with this error message: “Could not complete your request because the scratch disks are full.” Do not panic. In this article, we will answer your questions on what causes this error message, how it can be fixed, what a scratch disk is, and much more. If you need more info about this topic, visit the website link. We will go into the details. So keep on reading.
What Is A Scratch Disk?
Your scratch disk is a hard disk drive, HDD, solid-state drive, or SSD utilized for temporary storage. Similar to other apps, Adobe Photoshop will store temporary files in RAM. However, if the RAM is full or certain temporary files are too big, it will store these files on a makeshift memory known as the scratch disk.
Why Do I See My Scratch Disk Is Full?
You can see the “scratch disk full” error notification because you lack free space on your operating system’s drive. This is the drive that Photoshop would use for a scratch disk by default.
For the Adobe Photoshop software on the desktop, the minimum amount of space on a scratch disk should be 6GB, though it is advised to have free space at 20GB on your OS drive.
Here Is How To Fix The Scratch Disk Full Error
Free Up Disk Space
It is the most straightforward solution. And it is good to get into the habit of performing this every now and then.
macOS has an excellent tool built-in to optimize and free up storage space. To access this, click the Apple icon in the top-left corner. Then, proceed to About This Mac. Then, Storage. Then, Manage.
From here, you can free up disk space in various ways. If you have never used this tool yet, you will most likely be amazed at the storage space amount you can free up with the use of its Reduce Clutter feature. Store in iCloud is good for keeping your drive as clutter-free as possible as well.
Clean Up Adobe Photoshop Cache Files
Before this tip, take note that clearing Photoshop’s cache will remove previous versions of your projects, so remember to save these current projects beforehand.
Clearing your Photoshop’s cache will clear your scratch disk, resolving the error message “scratch disk is full.” Here is how to do it.
- Open a project in Adobe Photoshop.
- Select Edit. Then, Purge, Then, All.
- Choose OK.
- Repeat these steps for all your other projects.
Remove Temporary Photoshop Files
You can make use of Finder to remove temporary files on Photoshop, though this can be a bit tricky. If you do not consider yourself tech-savvy particularly, it is strongly recommended to give this approach a miss. However, if you want to try this, here are the steps on how it is done.
- On your desktop, from the menu bar, choose Go. Then, Go to Folder.
- Type “/tmp” into the dialog box and click Go.
- In the new Finder window that launches, look for and delete the Photoshop temporary files by right-clicking on these files and selecting Move to Trash.
All temporary files have the .tmp extension, so these are the ones you would want to delete. Photoshop temporary files will typically have a series of numbers in their name. PhotoshopTemp174815 would be a common name for a Photoshop temporary file, for instance.
Change Your Scratch Disk
If you prefer not to delete files on your OS drive, you can configure Adobe Photoshop to use a different drive as the scratch disk. However, this will still need a lot of free storage space (a minimum of 6GB). Please take note that if you want to utilize an external drive as your scratch disk, this will need to be plugged into your computer whenever using Photoshop. To change your scratch disk, here are the steps.
- Launch Photoshop and choose Photoshop in the top-left corner. Then, select Preferences. Then, Scratch Disks.
- In the Preferences window that would open, deselect the checkbox after your OS drive and choose the checkbox next to the drive you want to utilize as your scratch disk.
- Tap OK.
- Press the combination Command + Option + Esc and force quit the photo editing software.
- Then, relaunch Adobe Photoshop.
Reset Your Photoshop Preferences
Doing this can fix several error messages, including the “scratch disk is full” error. So if you think you have sufficient space on the scratch disk but are still getting the error notification, resetting your Photoshop preferences is worth it. To do so, follow these instructions.
- Open Adobe Photoshop and select Photoshop on the top-left side. Then, choose Preferences. Then, General.
- In the Preferences window that launches, select Reset Preferences On Quit.
- You will see a dialog box with the message, “Are you sure you want to reset preferences when quitting Photoshop?”
- Click OK.
- Close and reopen Photoshop.
Free Up RAM
It is possible that since your RAM is used up heavily, Photoshop is over-relying on your scratch disk, causing the error message. Fortunately, in macOS, there is a simple method to free up RAM. Here are the steps.
- Open Terminal. Then, type “sudo purge” and press enter.
- Enter your macOS passcode and press enter.
Final Words
Also, it is always a good and practical idea to see a few cleaners before deciding on a specific product. There are a lot of solutions and offers concerning this issue nowadays. A wise action to take is to select a couple of options and opt for the free trial run if there are any. This free trial run for a week or two can already give you an excellent opportunity to test the cleaner’s features before you make your final choice based on the experience you got, not merely from advertising or uncertain reviews.