6 Steps to Clear Your Scratch Disk

When you’re working with various images in Adobe Photoshop on the Mac, everything is great, but over time, you may experience the program’s lags, and here, suddenly, the notification about the full scratch disk appears. If you try to reopen the application, it doesn’t let you do it and shows the notification again. So, what does it mean, and what is a scratch disk, and how to solve this problem? These and many more questions can appear in the head when you’re suddenly interrupted from your work. It sounds irritating, but you have to deal with this. Read our guide to solve the problem and continue working in Photoshop without problems.

What Is a “Scratch Disk” Meaning?

Every time when you launch apps on the Mac, their temporary documents are saved on its RAM. But when it’s about Photoshop, it’s a bit different: it also uses the RAM, but when it’s full, the app starts to use the computer’s hard drive to save all the needed temporary data. It’s a “scratch disk” actually.

Why Does the Notification Appear?

Photoshop makes a pile of temporary documents that help the program fulfill tasks faster. Over time, these files just overload the scratch disk, and needless to say, it affects the program’s performance. That’s why a user sees a notification. It’s a message that alerts a user to clean up the scratch disk before he or she will continue working.

6 Ways to Get Rid of the Error

Follow these easy and effective hints to solve this problem and continue your editing various pictures in Photoshop without problems.

1. Clean up some space on the device’s hard drive. This error appears when a drive is overloaded with files. Just clean up space on the device (remove unused documents, trash, unnecessary apps, etc.)
2. Delete cache files from the program. When you clean up cache files, you’re cleaning up the program’s scratch disk. It’s an effective way to solve the problem and launch the application again without troubles. Remember that all the versions of any projects on Photoshop will be deleted from the computer. So, check that you have saved all the needed projects before you will start deleting something.

3. Delete temporary documents from Photoshop. Sometimes, users cannot remove the program’s cache, and they can remove unnecessary files manually. Of course, they need more time and effort to fulfill this task but it will help to solve the main problem. Before you start removing temporary documents, please check that all the needed projects on Photoshop are saved and the application is closed. A standard temporary document looks like: Photoshop Temp34782. You may find and delete maximum temporary documents and then try to launch the application again. After this, the problem should disappear.
4. Move a scratch disk to your computer’s external drive. If you’re not planning to remove any files, a good decision is to move a scratch disc for Photoshop to the external disk. Keep this disk plugged into the Mac computer all the time when you’re using Photoshop. It’ll help to avoid the annoying error.
5. Reset the application to solve the annoying problem. When the program is reseted, it’s getting restored to its factory settings. You may use the program’s menu or keyboard shortcuts. Remember that some settings like color and cursor options should be reconfigured when you’re relaunching the program.
6. Disable the program’s auto-recovery. By default, this program saves all the temporary documents automatically. Just try to disable auto-recovery. Don’t forget to save all the needed projects before you close the application so you do not lose anything important.

Feel free to discover more effective and simple tips on cleaning the scratch disk in Photoshop effectively. This problem is connected to the computer’s disk space. We hope the tips above were useful and effective to resolve a problem with your Mac. As you can see, it’s easy to work without any problems in Photoshop or any other graphics redactors and keep your Mac on its highest performance.