Anyone who regularly uses programs like Photoshop on Mac has encountered errors related to scratch disk at one time or another. The scratch disk in your Mac is essentially a space on the hard drive that Photoshop uses for extra storage space when your RAM doesn’t run out of memory for it. This extra storage space will also fill up quickly, usually with temporary files created automatically as a way of backing up different versions of your projects as you work on them. Here are some easy ways to fix “scratch discs are full” error on Mac.
Free up your disk space
The main reason why your Photoshop needs to use scratch disks for extra memory is because your internal disk is also running out of space. Therefore, it is best to regularly clear it of all unnecessary files. Ideally, you would follow the 15% rule, meaning your storage will always have about 15% free space. We understand it’s easy to forget and let your Mac get cluttered…
To free up your disk space, open your Apple menu → About This Mac → click on the Storage tab. Here you can see how much space has already been used on your device. If you click on “Manage” below, you will be presented with the Optimize Storage feature, where you can choose to clean up the clutter in different parts of your Mac.
If you’re having trouble deleting files, consider using an external cloud storage like iCloud or Google Drive instead. While those also have limited storage space, at least your Mac won’t be too cluttered to run Photoshop projects.
clear Photoshop cache
Photoshop has a built-in performance optimization feature that automatically removes unnecessary cache files. However, if you find that your Photoshop is full of cache and not cleared, you may want to do it manually. Here’s how to do that:
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Start Photoshop with an image open
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Click on Edit in the menu and select Clean up – you will be presented with 4 types of cache (Clipboard, Histories, Undo and Video Cache)
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Select the specific cache type you want to clean and it will be cleared for you. Otherwise, select All to remove them completely
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Once the category is grayed out, it means it has been removed.
Keep in mind that these cache items are responsible for storing the previous versions of your projects or all the records of your recently applied commands in Photoshop. For example, if you delete the video cache, you will lose any previous changes you made to your video project. Therefore, make sure not to delete anything important that you are currently working on and may need to recover.
Delete temporary files
The temporary files probably take up most of your scratch disk space when you use Photoshop. If your Photoshop doesn’t delete them automatically, you can do it manually too. To do this, go to your Finder → click on Go → type /tmp → press Enter.
Here you will see a list of files. You can search for Photoshop Temp files specifically if you are concerned about deleting files from other software. Go through these and delete anything that seems unnecessary, emptying your scratch disk and fixing those pesky Photoshop errors.
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