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. 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. 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. These files may not show up as occupied memory, either, which adds to the confusion as to why you see the error message. The app thinks you may want to use them later on, so it saves them.

If you force-quit apps like Photoshop often, temporary files don’t disappear. The main reason you see ‘Photoshop scratch disk full’ errors are temporary files. Though these files are temporary, they need a place to live – the scratch disk. 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.

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. 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.

Think of a scratch disk as of a scratch pad of paper. 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. Intensive programs like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro often serve this error up, and it can be really confusing. Make your Mac fast and secure with CleanMyMac X.Ĭlearing 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.

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