This is because Photoshop requires contiguous, unfragmented free space on the scratch disk drive. It is also possible to get the "scratch disk is full" error, even if the scratch disk drive To clear some space on whatever drive is defined as the scratch disk in Photoshop Preferences, or add additional drives for Photoshop to use as scratch space. If you're getting an error message that the scratch disk is full, it usually means you need "swap" space, or virtual memory, when your system does not have enough RAM to perform an operation. Photoshop uses your hard drive as temporary Then you can set a drive with much more free space as the scratch disk, and also, you can set a second, third or fourth scratch disk more.The Photoshop scratch disk is your hard drive. If you use Mac, press the Command and Option keys instead. Make sure do not select your system drive, a network or removable drive as the scratch disk.įollow to open the Scratch Disk Preference window: Run Photoshop, as soon as Photoshop starts, on your keyboard, press the Ctrl and Alt keys at the same time. If you want to keep Photoshop run fast on your computer, you can change its scratch disk allocation. If it doesn’t, move to your scratch disk and remove your unwanted files.įix 3: Change your scratch disk allocation Make sure your scratch disk have at least 40 GB free space. Note: If you use Mac, press the Command and Option keys instead. Run Photoshop, as soon as Photoshop starts, on your keyboard, press the Ctrl and Alt keys at the same time to bring up the Scratch Disk Preference window. If you can’t open Photoshop on your computer, follow these steps instead: Then you’ll see which is your Photoshop scratch disk.
If you can access the Photoshop interface properly, click Edit (for Mac users, click Photoshop) > Preferences > Scratch Disks. In case of that, you can go on to clean up your scratch disk.įirst things first, you need to find out which drive is the scratch disk for the Photoshop on your computer. Sometimes you might get the same scratch disks are full error not too long after you deleting the temp files.
And don’t worry to delete these temp files, it’s safe.ġ) On your keyboard, hold down the Windows logo key and press the R key to bring up the Run box.ģ) On the open window, go to Local > Temp.Ĥ) Find and highlight all the files start with ~PST or Photoshop temp.ĥ) On your keyboard, hold down the Shift key, then press the Del key to delete all the Photoshop temp files.Ħ) On your Photoshop interface, click OK on the “scratch disks are full” error message window and restart Photoshop and edit your picture to see if it works fine. Once the error pops up, simply delete your temp files of Photoshop to make room for new job. The scratch disks are full error probably happens when your scratch disk become full of the temp files. But in the long term, we recommend you perform all the fixes as you can work in Photoshop properly.įix 1: Delete your temp files of Photoshop
Note: You may probably fix your problem through the first fix. As a result, when both your RAM and scratch disk become full of temp files, you get the error: scratch disk are full. If you’re working with large images or layers on Photoshop, Photoshop would then create a mountain of temp files. If there is only one hard drive on your computer, the scratch disk is the system drive. When there’s not enough RAM on your computer, Photoshop would use your hard drives as temporary space, and these hard drives are called “scratch disk”. Photoshop requires a working space called virtual memory or cache memory when you’re working in it. Here’s a simple introduction to help you gain a general sense of scratch disk:
Read on to find out how…įirst things first, you may be curious about what the scratch disk is. Whichever the error message you get, don’t panic, you’ll learn the real fixes in this guide.
Could not initialize Photoshop because the scratch disks are full.Ĭould not use the move tool because the scratch disks are full.Ĭould not complete the command because the scratch disks are full.