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If you regularly work in programs like Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and Adobe Photoshop, you’ve probably encountered errors relating to a 'scratch disk.' The most common error is Photoshop’s refusal to open, along with the message 'Could not initialize Photoshop because the scratch disks are full.'

If you’ve stumbled on this page because you’ve experienced this issue, you’re in luck: we’re going to show you how to resolve your scratch disk problem easily and, as a bonus, keep your computer clean and performing at its best.

What is a scratch disk?

Remove The Duplicated files. There are various instances when a Mac user downloads the same.

Before we highlight some solutions, it would be a good idea to have at least a general sense of what a scratch disk actually is. When you are using programs like Photoshop or Final Cut Pro, they require a working space called virtual memory or cache memory. This is where temporary project files are stored and accessed.

For this guide, we are focusing our laser sights on Photoshop. After all, it is the most common application. But rest assured that the info we cover will apply to most programs that rely on scratch drives.

Scratch disk is your hard drive space used by Photoshop as virtual memory when there is not enough RAM to complete a task. Photoshop allows you to assign several scratch disks: that way, it has more space at its disposal.

When working with large images and lots of layers, Photoshop is secretly chewing up your drive space by rapidly creating a mountain of project temp files.

It’s important to note that when you set up Photoshop, you will have the option to assign the scratch disks to the drive of your choice. We highly recommend not using your system drive unless you have no other alternatives.

Reasons behind “scratch disks are full” error

Temporary files are the most significant reason behind the “scratch disks are full” error. They usually mass up in your drive without leaving single evidence of their presence. If you have a habit of force-quitting Photoshop, you may have a lot of temporary files stored in your system. As Photoshop can’t fully close all projects after you quitted it so rapidly, it keeps such files on your machine.

Here are some other reasons that may cause the mentioned message:

• Lack of space in the drive where the scratch disk is located
• The partition of the disk being used by Photoshop is full
• Limited RAM allowed for the Photoshop

What to do when your scratch disks are full?

Next, we’ll explain how to clear out the scratch disk and fix the Photoshop issue on a Mac. If you’ve faced a problem on the Windows computer, follow the instructions below.

How to fix “scratch disks are full” error on Mac

Mac users receive a 'scratch disk full' message when Photoshop (or any of the other programs) has used up all the space on the hard drive that has been assigned as a scratch disk. This used-up space is temporary and separate from your actual project file.

The problem is that Photoshop doesn't always get rid of these temporary files when they aren't needed anymore, which is more like a permanent problem if the user can't find a solution.

So how to clear your scratch disks? Let's find out.

Important takeout: If your HD is full, Photoshop will display scratch disk errors.

1. Clear your Photoshop cache

Photoshop has an in-built solution for deleting specific Photoshop caches. When these pesky caches aren’t removed automatically by the program, they can grow and take up a lot of space on your scratch disk.

To use this tool, simply enter Photoshop in Mac and with an image open:

Clean Mac Disk Space Free

• Click the Edit menu button.
• Hover your mouse over 'purge' to reveal 4 different options.
• Undo, Clipboard, Histories, All. If an item is greyed out, that means it has already been deleted.
• Select the specific item you want to delete or select 'all' to delete all of your caches.
• You will be warned that the purge cannot be undone, so make sure you don’t need a previous version of one of your projects and then click OK.

A good way to keep Photoshop cache from piling up is by running regular disk cleanups. But here is a problem: the cache sits so deep in system folders (and their subfolders) that deleting it manually becomes a pain. A company called MacPaw produced a tool just for this purpose, CleanMyMac X. You've heard of similar tools, but that one actually pioneered Mac cleanup.

Here’s how you can schedule regular cleanings with CleanMyMac X:

1. Launch CleanMyMac X tool.
2. Click System Junk and press Scan.
3. Click Review Details to deselect the data you want to keep.
4. Hit Clean to clean up junk files.

Just let it do its thing. That way, you’ll never forget to clear Photoshop cache and tons of other system junk on your system.

You can download CleanMyMac X free version and see how it works.

How your Scratch drive is filling up, an example from Sketch

Along with Photoshop, Sketch is another app that keeps temporary versions of projects on your disk. And it eats up a whole lot: from 60 to 220 GB on average.

Each time you press Command + S, some space is wasted away from your Scratch drive. Say your file weighs 23 MB. Then, 7 temporary editions would increase that size to 161 MB. This problem hasn’t been widely known until recently, but, luckily, there is an automatic solution.

CleanMyMac’s System Junk module lists Documents’ Versions from Sketch and other similar apps. You can keep the final and the oldest version of a project and delete all revisions in-between. Voila, you’ve got free space again!

2. Delete your temp files

When it comes to wasting space on your scratch disk, the worst culprit is often Photoshop's own temp files. If Photoshop isn't going to get rid of them, I guess you’re going to have to do the job yourself.

To find them, you'll need to look for files that begin with 'pst' and then a string of numbers followed by the file extension '.tmp.' Search 'Photoshop Temp' with a space between the two words.

You can just search your scratch drive, but to make sure everything is found, rather perform the search on the entire computer. It may take a couple of minutes for the search to complete, so pop into the kitchen for a quick snack while you wait.

When you return, you should have a long list of files. If your work is saved and the program is closed, you can safely delete these files and watch as your scratch disk space is reclaimed.

3. Clear your disk space

If you don't have another drive or don't want to buy one, then it's time to do some spring cleaning. Look at the drive contents to see if you can delete anything you don't need. Is there storage space that can be cleared? Usually, there is, so go ahead and delete your old files and free up some space.

Alternatively, you can simply transfer files to external drives, DVDs, or cloud storage solutions like Dropbox and iCloud.

Take a look at our How to Clean Your Startup Disk (10 Ways). Inside we have lots of practical advice for macOS users who want a clean drive that performs well. Even if your scratch disk isn’t your startup drive, and we hope that is the case, there are many tips to help you spring clean like a pro.

Notice for macOS Sierra (and higher) users:Users of macOS Sierra might be aware that Apple has added new tools to 'help' manage storage space. If you navigate to Apple Menu > About This Mac > Storage tab, you will see the new Sierra bar graph.

If you click on 'manage,' you will be taken to the new tools. While there are some truly helpful elements, like using Optimized Storage to customize what email attachments download to your Mac, most of the tools move junk from one place to another place.

Because many of these processes are automatic, Sierra users might not be aware of what the OS is doing on their behalf. If it sounds like a good idea to have macOS deciding what files to send to iCloud and what iTunes videos to remove, go for it.

For everyone else, we’d recommend turning off these tools or at least making sure you understand them fully before turning them on.

It can be challenging to check and analyze all contents of your disk space. Luckily, some tools can provide a disk scan and can save up lots of space on your Mac. Apps notarized by Apple are best for this job. CleanMyMac X, the app I talked about earlier, has a Large & Old Files feature, which finds and removes massive files stored on your Mac.

4. Change your scratch disk

If the disk being used is nearly full, change the directory for a more spacious one. Then, restart Photoshop. You can change the Scratch Disk location by pressing the Command + Option when launching Photoshop. It can be a hassle, but if you keep an eye on the available space on your scratch disk, you can do something when space is becoming limited. It’s also worth noting that problems don't just occur when the drive is completely full, hard drives should ideally never be above 85% capacity. Pass that threshold, and problems will be just around the corner.

So, you've identified rapidly depleting free space on your Mac hard drive — now what? Well, it may be a good idea to change your scratch disk to another drive in your system (just not the system drive, as that is one drive you really don't want to slow down). If you don't have another drive, you could purchase one, with SSD being the best option for Mac OS X scratch disk purposes.

Follow these steps to change your scratch disk in Photoshop:

1. Click on the Photoshop menu.
2. Go to Preferences and then Scratch Disk.
3. Tick the checkbox to select or remove a drive as the scratch disk.
4. Click OK.
5. Restart Photoshop.

7z to iso converter for mac. You can change the Scratch Disk location by pressing Command + Option when launching Photoshop.

5. Consider buying a new SSD

The scratch disk problem happens because of 2 simple reasons: lack of RAM and lack of HDD space. Both can be addressed if you buy a Thunderbolt SSD (solid-state drive) to use as your Scratch Disk. By today’s standards, 60 GBs should be enough.

Buy an external SSD to use as a Scratch Disk. 60 GB should be enough.

6. Follow the 15% rule

Not strictly a rule, but rather a common practice states that you should keep at least 10-15% of your disk space free at all times. If your HDD size is 256 GB, your lower limit is 25 GB. You’ll have enough room to render your Photoshop files, save multiple project copies, etc.

Loud fans noise is a sign your CPU is overloaded and approaching its carrying capacity.

7. Free up RAM in Terminal

When Photoshop gets paralyzed due to lack of RAM, there is a command you can run in Terminal.

1. Open the Terminal app (find it in the Launchpad).
2. Paste in: sudo purge
3. Then, enter your password.

At first, you may not see the difference, but you’ve just flushed your RAM, releasing all the files kept in virtual memory. There are a few more ways to free up RAM; check them out too.

You can also download CleanMyMac (get a free edition here) and use its Free UP RAM command.

1. Install the app and click on Maintenance.
2. Select Free Up RAM and click Run.

You can apply this trick anytime to unfreeze an app. Also, check out the other tools in the Maintenance section. They will help you take some load off your Mac’s memory.

8. Search for hidden files in your Photoshop folder

Some projects’ leftovers are invisible and yet take up lots of space. There is a shortcut combination to display hidden files in whatever folder you are in. So, open your main Photoshop folder and press Command + Shift + Period. If you find any greyed-out folders, check their weight.

To see hidden files in any folder, press Command+Shift+Period.

As you see, there are many methods to solve the “scratch disks are full” error. There is also one more way to reorganize data on your Mac and save up some space. Disk defragmentation gathers related items and lets you delete unneeded data as well as leftovers. Note that the latest macOS doesn’t need to be defragmented as Apple has provided it with in-built utilities, which automatically remove fragmented files. So, defragmentation may only work for you if your Mac’s running the OS version earlier than OS X 10.2.

How to clear the scratch disk on Windows

If you are experiencing a “scratch disks are full” error on your Windows computer, freeing up space in the drive that accommodates the scratch disk may fix the problem. To do that, you need first to find out which drive Photoshop uses as a scratch disk.

1. Open Photoshop and go to Edit > Preferences.
2. Choose Scratch Disks.
3. Check which drive is used as a scratch disk.

The scratch disk should have at least 40GB of free space. If you see that it’s running out of space, access the drive and remove or transfer the largest files.

Another thing you may do to fix the error is clear out Photoshop temporary files. Just make sure you save your work first and close all Adobe apps. Then, go to the temp data folder
C:UsersYour UsernameAppDataLocalTemp. Look for the files that have “Photoshop Temp” in their names, highlight and remove them.

The 'Scratch Disk Is Full' error is fixed!

If you followed this guide, there is absolutely no reason why you should ever have to deal with the annoying 'scratch disk full' error again. Next time you want to create something amazing in Photoshop, you should experience something new - a Photoshop that runs so smoothly it practically purrs.

Whether you solve the problem yourself or let a great piece of software like CleanMyMac X do it for you, just make sure you clean up your scratch disk. Your Mac will thank you for it*.

*Not literally. That would be weird.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the “scratch disks are full” error may appear?

The number one reason for the “scratch disks are full” message is the lack of space in the drive where scratch disks are located. You can also run out of space in the partition of the disk allocated for Photoshop, which may also cause the above-mentioned error.

What are Photoshop temporary files?

Temporary files will appear if you don’t close Photoshop fully or open the Smart Object and don’t close them with the Smart Object layer. Photoshop temp files have a '.tmp' extension, so it’s easy to find them on your Mac.

How to fix the “scratch disks are full” issue?

One of the solutions is to change the scratch disk allocation. You may also need to clear the Photoshop cache and remove temporary files.

Summary

How to clear storage on Mac? Delete trash from trash bin folder; delete useless apps from Mac; store a large number of videos and photos to an external hard drive to get more space on Mac; erase app cache on Mac regularly, but if you want to free up space on Macbook in one step, use EelPhone Mac Master.

“I bought one Macbook two years ago, the Mac runs so slowly now, I deleted all trash on trash bin folder, and uninstall some apps from Mac at the same time also, but the hard drive is still almost full, how to free up space on Mac hard drive thoroughly?”
free up space on Macbook is easy, and we can free up space on Macbook air in different ways, or we can also use the tool to free up space on Mac with one click.

Tip 1: How to Free Space on Mac With One Click

Different from all tips below, EelPhone Mac Master will make space on Mac with one click, and according to your needs to clear up storage on Mac.
First of all, download EelPhone Mac Master on Mac, and then launch it after the installation. From the left side of the master, different type to free up storage on Mac.

Clean Up Junk

It's useless if we only remove app from Mac home page, and even we remove apps from Mac settings, junk files are still on Mac, EelPhone Mac Master will clean up junk files on Mac deeply to clear space on Macbook.
Step 1: The Mac will scan all junk files on Mac, from the scanning result, select the junk files that you want to erase.
Step 2: Once junk files were selected, click on Clean button on the upper right corner.
Note: The Full Disk Access permission only required for MacOS 10.14 and later versions. So if your Macos is 10.14 or later, go to Mac's System Preferences through Apple menu, on the home page of System Preferences, click on Security & Privacy, switch to Privacy menu, scroll down to the Full Disk Access from the left side, tap on it, then at the right side, click on +icon to locate and add EelPhone Mac Master form the app list. Don't forget to add EelPhone Mac Master to Full Disk Access list to allow the Mac cleaner to scan full disk on Mac.

Delete Large File

Large file on Mac occupy large space on Mac, use EelPhone Mac Master to scan out the large file on Mac, check the scanning result, and select the useless large file to clean from Mac.
Step 1: Switch to the second feather on the left side of the Mac master, then the master will scan all large files on Mac over 50 GB on Mac by clicking on Scan button.
Step 2: From the scanning result, select the useless large files, then click on Delete button on the right upper side.
Note: But we should be careful before deleting large files on Mac, don't delete system files! If you aren't sure if the large files are useful or not, you can turn to another type on the left side to free up space in Mac.

Delete Duplicate Files

We always re-install app on Mac but are you sure that you have deleted previous app files on Mac, or you have duplicate files of the same app on Mac? Use the Mac master to detect all duplicate files on Mac to clear hard drive space Mac.
Step 1: Switch to the third feather on the left side of the Mac master, then select the location of the scanning, click on Scan button to start to scan duplicate files on the Mac.
Step 2: The scanning result will present the original file and the duplicates at the same time. Select the duplicates files from the result, and then click on Delete button to remove useless duplicate files from Mac.

Erase Private Data

Cache data, mail attachment, online traces, chat history.large number of private data on Mac, we can also use Mac master to erase private data to free up space on Mac.
Step 1: Switch to the fourth feather on the left side of the master, and then click on the Scan button to start scan out all private data on Mac.
Step 2: From the scanning result, select the privacy data to delete from Mac.
Like privacy data on chrome, keep it if you are the Mac owner, otherwise you will take more time to enter personal account and information.

Manage Apps & Extensions

We installed so many apps on Mac, but some of them are used one time a year, why not uninstall it to get more space on your Mac, when need, re-install it again, it's easy also.
Step 1: Switch to the last feather of the Mac master, and Uninstall APPS or Remove Extension, select one to scan.
Step 2: Whichever you selected, the Mac master will scan apps or extensions from the scanning result, select the items to remove.
All feathers above will free up space on Mac, it's better to clear hard drive space Mac from time to time, so many apps useless for you will be attached to one app you want to download, app cache will increase over time, so if we want to free up space on Mac, use EelPhone Mac Master regularly. Or use the free tips below to clear up space on Mac.

Clear Free Space On Mac

Tip 2: How to Free Up Storage on Mac-Uninstall Useless Apps

From the Finder on Mac, we can locate app save folder and then erase app from Mac permanently, but the attached cache and data can be moved but still stored on Mac.
Go to Finder, from the home page of Finder, on the left side, find out Applications, tap on it, all apps on Mac will appear on the right side.
Select the app you want to erase, then right-click on it, tap on Move to Trash.

Clean Space Mac Free

Return to the Trash icon on the home page of Mac, right-click on it and click on Empty Trash to remove app from trash folder.

Tip 3: How to Clear Space on Macbook by Erasing Cache Data on Mac

Cache is one large part of Mac, internet browsing history, chat history data including messages/videos/photos/audios, email account attachment, personal account data like gmail account on chrome, and we can also locate cache data on Mac, and then we can delete cache data form Mac to free up storage on Mac.
Close up all apps on Mac you have opened, and then run Finder, from the top of Finder, click on Go menu to locate Library.
From library, we can find cache folder from the top, log in cache folder, all cache data of Mac are in the folder, select useless cache data, then right-click, tap on Move to Trash, don't forget to go to Trash folder on Home page to Empty Trash.
Don't erase useful data on cache, check it carefully before erasing cache data from Mac Finder.

Tip 4: How to Create Space on Mac by Moving Data to External Hard Drive

If you don't want to erase cache data or uninstall apps from Mac, to clear space on Mac, if you have stored so many videos and photos on Mac, considering to move videos and photos to external hard drive or USB storage to backup large videos and photos.
Bought one external hard drive with large capacity, then insert the hard drive to Mac.

Clean Free Space On Imac

Find out all videos and photos on Mac you want to backup, Ctrl+C to copy videos and photos on Mac, then go to the hard drive, create a folder to save videos and photos from Mac, Ctrl+V to paste copied videos and photos to external hard drive.
It's a nice method to clear disk space Mac, no need of erasing any data from Mac, just change the room for videos and photos on Mac.
From all tips above, select the preferable way to free up space on Mac, the quickest method is EelPhone Mac Master, the free methods are also available, clear up space on Mac from time to time to make Mac run faster.

Alex Scott

This article was updated on 29 December, 2020