How to empty scratch disk in mac?

As you are reading this, you probably have encountered the scratch disk full error in Photoshop on your Mac. A full scratch disk means you can't perform edits, save images, or even start Photoshop.

Wondering why this problem occurs and how to fix it on Mac? Keep reading this blog and you will find all the answers you are looking for.

Before we offer you the solutions to the full scratch disk problem in Photoshop, let's find out what a scratch disk is.

According to Adobe, a scratch disk is a hard drive or SSD that is used for temporary storage while Photoshop is running. Photoshop uses this space to store portions of your documents and their history panel states that don't fit in your Mac's memory or RAM. By default, Photoshop uses the hard drive (Macintosh HD) where the macOS is installed as the primary scratch disk.

Temporary files are the main reason why Photoshop’s scratch disk is full. As you know, Photoshop is a large design program. When you use it to create and edit images, it generates a large number of temporary files that can make Photoshop run faster. But over time, these files pile up and take up a lot of the space of the scratch disk.

In addition, when the hard drive used as the scratch disk runs out of storage space, you may also get the prompt window that says the scratch disk is full. To find out if you have any available storage space, click the Apple Menu > System Settings > General > Storage.

Another reason behind the scratch disk full error is limited RAM for Photoshop. In this case, you may need to add more memory.

After understanding what a scratch disk is and why the scratch disk full error occurs in Photoshop, we come to the most important part of how to clear scatch disk in Photoshop.

Photoshop has a built-in cleaning function that allows you to clean up the history and caches in Photoshop. But please note that this cleanup is irreversible, and all deleted history and caches cannot be restored.

Here's how to clear the caches in Photoshop:

Adobe says that you should reserve at least 20GB of free space on your macOS hard drive while working with Photoshop. Depending on the type of file you are working on, you may also need to set aside additional storage space to ensure that Photoshop runs properly.

There are various ways to free up your Mac disk space, such as deleting useless files, removing duplicate files, uninstalling unwanted apps, moving files you don't use currently to another disk, etc.

Here we would like to introduce you a handy tool - BuhoCleaner, one of the best cleaners for Mac. Not only can it help you clear junk files from the system, users, and applications, but it can also speed up your process of finding and deleting large files and duplicate files. Click the button below to have a try now.

Photoshop creates a lot of temporary files as you use it. You can go to Finder to find and delete these temporary files manually. Most of the time, the temporary files start with pst, followed by numbers, and end with a .tmp extension.

Here are the how-to steps:

Still haven't freed up enough disk space for Photoshop? Choose another disk as a scratch disk. If you don't have another disk to choose from, you'll need to add a new disk on your Mac first. SSD is your best bet.

Here's How to Change Scratch Disk in Photoshop:

By default, Photoshop uses 70% of the memory space. You can adjust this value as needed. However, we strongly recommend that you do not exceed 85% at most. Otherwise, it may cause poor performance of other applications due to insufficient memory.

You can also optimize the space Photoshop uses by disabling the auto-recovery saving and limiting the history states.

Conclusion

You have just learned how to fix the scracth disk full error in Photoshop on Mac. We hope that you have succesfully resolved it by using the above methods. If not, there are many more ways you can try, such as increasing RAM, resetting Photoshop preferences, defragmenting your hard drive, and more.

• In Photoshop, open the Edit menu and click Purge.
• Select All to clear all caches, or choose an individual cache to clear (Clipboard, Histories, Video Cache).

Go to Photoshop > Preferences from the menu bar. Select Scratch Disks and tick the checkbox to select or remove a drive as the scratch disk. Click OK. Reopen Photoshop.

Clearing a scratch disk on your Mac may not be a problem you’ll run into often, but those working in apps like Photoshop should understand exactly how to solve for the problem when it pops up. Intensive programs like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro often serve this error up, and it can be really confusing.

Here, we’ll show you how to clear scratch disk on Mac, how to empty scratch disk for use, why Photoshop scratch disks are full, and how to better manage memory to reduce or eliminate the frequency these popups occur.

Think of a scratch disk as of a scratch pad of paper. You use the scratchpad to write down notes for something; maybe it’s ideas for a book you’re writing or sketching some illustrations by hand before testing the waters in a design app.

Scratch disks work the same way. Large, intensive apps need a bit of hard drive space to use as virtual memory when there’s not enough RAM to finish a task. Like a scratch pad, it keeps things there temporarily while it performs process-heavy tasks like editing videos or photos with many edits and layers. Though these files are temporary, they need a place to live – the scratch disk.

The main reason you see ‘Photoshop scratch disk full’ errors are temporary files. If you force-quit apps like Photoshop often, temporary files don’t disappear. The app thinks you may want to use them later on, so it saves them. These files may not show up as occupied memory, either, which adds to the confusion as to why you see the error message.

Other reasons you see the error is the drive where the scratch disk is located is out of space; this is most frequent when your Mac’s storage is too full. Similarly, the partition Photoshop or other apps uses may be too full, and a limited amount of RAM available to the app may also cause this error.

When you see ‘Photoshop scratch disk full’ Mac computers have no good recourse for solving the issue. It won’t automatically clear disk space, or create a unique partition so the problem doesn’t occur. You have to know the methods for clearing a scratch disk yourself.

There are a few tips and tricks for clearing your scratch disk that are effective, but remember the best path forward is always managing your memory proactively. Here, we’ll show you how to clear a scratch disk partition, and show some apps that may prevent the errors from popping up ever again.

You’re here to learn how to clear scratch disk in Photoshop, but the root of the problem is your Mac’s cluttered storage space. How often do you save items and never touch them again?

CleanMyMac X has an incredible feature named Space Lens that provides you with an overview of your Mac’s storage makeup so you can quickly identify which folders are overflowing with stuff. It analyzes your entire system and surfaces which folders are too bulky, and offers a quick way to delete files you don’t need. Here’s how it’s done:

The app also has a feature named Large and Old Files that’s a lot like Space Lens, but examines individual files by size. You may have saved a movie long ago, then forgot all about it. CleanMyMac X reminds you about it, and lets you quickly and easily delete it from your Mac forever.

Knowing how to clear Photoshop scratch disk errors is sometimes as simple as deleting temporary files. To locate and delete temporary Photoshop files, search your finder for any files with the extension “.tmp”. Photoshop begins its filename with “pst”, so anything matching those parameters can be deleted.

While you want to know how to clear scratch disk Photoshop doesn’t make it easy, does it?

When you want to clear your Photoshop scratch disk, you’re essentially deleting its cache. To do that, follow these steps:

Now your Photoshop cache is clear, and it’s free to write more temporary files to a scratch disk.

You can change the location of your scratch disk in photoshop, too! One popular method is to use an external drive as a scratch drive – just remember to leave it plugged into your Mac.

Here’s how to change the scratch drive location on your Mac:

Now the location of your scratch disk is changed!

Macs don’t need defragmentation, and if you have a modern Mac with an SSD, you can actually harm your Mac by defragmenting it. Macs with SSD drives manage file storage differently than old HDD Macs, so defragmenting them can actually do harm.

Your best bet is to create backups of your file system, and often. Get Backup Pro for Mac helps you automate your backups, sync files between computers and mounted devices, and encrypt those backups for safekeeping. You can also create projects within Get Backup Pro for saving files from apps like Photoshop!

Backing files up is a great option because there will be times when cleaning up an app’s cache or files inadvertently destroy or delete files you actually wanted to keep. Having a backup is your safety net.

Sometimes your Photoshop will just freeze and freeing up purgeable space might not help. In this case, try clearing up some RAM, the lack of memory on Mac often causes issues with intensive programs like Photoshop. With CleanMyMac X, RAM cleanup is the easiest thing to do:

You can also free up RAM manually in Terminal:

If you’ve tried to fix the “scratch disk is full” error using the methods above and it didn’t help, you might need to reset Photoshop to its factory settings. Please note that this action will also reset your color settings and other settings to the original defaults. So you’ll need some time to get back on track with your work after the reset. Here’s how to reset Photoshop:

Alternatively, you can just quit Photoshop, press and hold Command + Option + Shift and open Photoshop without releasing those keys. Once you see a dialog asking if you want to delete the settings file, click Yes, and reopen Photoshop. This should fix the scratch disk problem.

This should win you a good chunk of memory for your Photoshop to continue stable work. Try restarting Photoshop to see the difference.

In some cases, you can try and add additional storage to your drive — but that’s only possible if you have an old Mac. For example, Macs from 2012 and earlier come with HDD that can be replaced with SDD (a modern and speedy type of Mac storage drive). Newer Macs mostly use SSD, which is very hard to replace. Generally, all Macs from 2016 and later have internal drives that are not upgradeable, so you’ll have to look for an alternative solution — clean up your current drive or use an external drive as a scratch disk.

If you do find that your internal drive can be upgraded, contact the professional Apple service to do the job — this is a very serious task that requires solid expertise.

Using CleanMyMac X is the best way to purge temporary files and clear up scratch disk space on your Mac without digging through Photoshop. Remember that scratch disks only hold temporary files, and those files don’t always delete themselves when not in use.

CleanMyMac X’s Maintenance module has a feature named “Free up purgeable space” that tackles temporary files stored on scratch disk space. Thought it may be a good idea to run the entire Maintenance module and really get your Mac in perfect condition, freeing up purgeable space is great when you just need to free up space on a scratch disk. Just keep in mind you should have Photoshop closed when you run this module!

If you have a Windows computer, you are not immune to the “scratch disk is full” error, unfortunately. Here’s how too clear scratch disk on Windows:

You might also consider deleting temporary files — on Windows computers they are generated the same way as on Mac. To do this, quit Photoshop and go to C:\Users\Your Username\AppData\Local\Temp. You can remove all files that have “temp” in the names.

The power of Photoshop is the gift and the curse. It can do just about everything you want when it comes to editing photos, but it’s consumptive. Clearing up scratch disk space may not be routine for you, but if you’re a Photoshop power user, you’ll likely run into it at some point.

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