Running photoshop and get messages like this, this or this.
What is scratch disk and what can we do about it? that's the topic we are going to talk about today…
So you have got scratch disk full message in photoshop and you don't know what it is and
what we can do about it? Before I jump into the solution we need to know what is a scratch disk?
A scratch disk is a disk drive or SSD used for temporary storage while photoshop is running.
Photoshop using this space to store portion of your documents and their history
which don't get fit in ram's memory. So why do we get scratched this full message?
The most common cause of getting this message is simply lack of storage space available
in the scratch disk. So, let me show you this chart here to explain you what is scratch disk?
and how it works so let's suppose this is the primary drive where the photoshop is installed
and we call it the scratch disk so basically what happened when you install your operating system
it takes some space into your hard drive or ssd. So, we call it
operating system and then secondly, once you launch photoshop it takes this much space,
so even when you launch photoshop and you haven't opened any document yet,
it takes away this much space in your hard drive. “This chart is for illustration purposes only to
make you understand what is the scratch disk and how it works” and once you create a new document
or open an existing PSD file in photoshop, let's suppose this takes away this much space
and we call it photoshop running documents. So, you see this much space has been taken already in
the hard drive even before editing any documents in photoshop. So, you see this grey area on the
side, so basically this is the free space. Now if you perform any edits in photoshop this running
document can take up all the space depending how intensive or large documents you are working on.
So, what happens when all the space available is full? This is where you get this message. So,
here we have two solution for it. The first solution is we can provide more scratch disk space
to photoshop where it can accommodate all those extra temporary documents and our edits will go
along smoothly. So, how can we do that? Just go to edit > preferences > scratch disk and if you
are Mac users, the option will be photoshop > preferences. So, here you can see I have this
much space available 64.91 gigabytes available in my C drive where my photoshop is installed and
then I also have added my second disk where almost 549 Gigs are available for the scratch disk. So,
basically what happen if the C drive gets full and then the photoshop will take space from the E
drive. So, I have more than enough space available for photoshop to perform all those tasks and it
can handle large files easily and if you do not have more space available on the other drives
or do not have an external drive so this brings up to our second solution which is to remove
all unnecessary files and create more space with our existing drives. So, how do we do that? So,
I'm going to press cancel. So, in order to create more space, we have to remove unnecessary file or
move the file existing file to external hard drive. So, if I was you, I will be looking
for “disk clean up” options. You can google it and you will find all the ways, how it works
and then empty the recycle bins if you have removed something from your computer but it is
still sitting in the recycle bin or trash, it is still taking space in your hard drive. So,
get rid from all that trash or all those recycled bill items and clear it and you get more space
available on the C drive and the second thing I would do, I will take away or remove all those
temporarily file which photoshop use to run this document. So, I go to edit and purge and remove
all the clipboards. So, whatever documents or whatever data you have copied from somewhere,
you want to paste here will be removed. So, it will give you more space on your disk. I’ll
clear all of this option but once you do that you will lose access to all the history and all
the undo's on your running document. So, in this case, I am not worried about losing the history,
so, I will make sure you press, I go to edit and go to purge and press for all and this way,
this cannot be undone and continue yes and it will create more space for photoshop to use
and the third most important thing I would do is to remove the temporary files from
the scratch disk. So, basically what happens? Every time you open photoshop, photoshop takes
away this much or this much or any space in the hard drive and when you close the document or
when you close the photoshop, it doesn't mean all this space which photoshop used, will get back to
normal! So, basically what happens? Sometimes photoshop leaves those large temporarily files
unattended in the temporary folder. So, we need to clean those temporarily files from time to time
to make more space available for the photoshop and let me show you how can we
locate those temporary files? So, I'm using windows 10, If I open my computer,
so in my computer I have install photoshop in C drive, where I have 65 GB free space available.
So, in order to remove the temporarily files, I need to go to C drive or the drive where you have
installed the photoshop. Open up and then we need to go to users, so in my case I’ll select this one
and I'm using window 10 and for windows 10 user make sure you go to view and then click on this
hidden item because the folder I'm looking for here is hidden and you won't be able to see it
if you don't have these hidden items check ON. So, once you check the hidden item ON,
so here's App that I'm looking for. So, simply click on the App data and then go to local
and here I'm looking for a folder called temp. So, If I open up this folder, you see all these
files here are temporarily files which has been created by photoshop time to time and
If I select all by pressing Ctrl+A and right click on this and go to the properties and you will see…
OMG look at this. So, photoshop has taken 40 gigabytes almost 40.4 gigabytes
space from my hard disk for all those temporarily files which are completely useless for me now. So,
I press cancel and select all and right click on any of them and select delete and it will delete
all the files. So, these files are still there, let me check what's the size of it?
so they are 22mb, which is not a lot! So, If I go back to my computer and now you can see by
removing those temporarily files which was almost more than 40 GB in size but I have got 105 GB
free space available in my C drive now and if you are using mac you need to go to go menu and need
to press option key from the keyboard and then you will see libraries and in libraries you need to go
to application support adobe common media cache and you see all those files which you can find
in media caches, you can remove all those files. These are all temporary files you don't need it
and make sure you can see the path on the screen now, make sure you follow this path and whichever
file you see in these locations you need to remove them all because those who are temporarily files
and another thing you need to pay attention to if we are using other adobe softwares like premiere
pro or adobe after effects, you must have some sort of caching memories in those drives and make
sure you go there and remove all those temporary files. I hope this tutorial helped you in some
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