Seemingly indecipherable “Scratch Disk Full” errors can be extremely discouraging for Photoshop users, yet luckily they can be resolved through several easy steps.
Error 378 typically occurs when Photoshop uses (usually your computer’s built-in drive) is running out of space on its hard disk drive. Usually this is caused by temporary files which do not go away after you force quit the program.
How to Empty the Scratch Disk in Photoshop
If Photoshop reports “Scratch Disk Is Full,” this could be caused by temporary files created by the software to speed up operations; when these temporary files build up on your hard drive or SSD storage space they create an error that prompts you to empty your scratch disk.
No matter which version of Photoshop and operating system you have, there are multiple ways to address this issue. One is changing the default scratch disk location by pressing Ctrl + Alt (Windows) or Command + Option (Mac), another way would be deleting temporary files off your hard drive or SSD used by Photoshop and finally defragmenting it for improved performance.
To do this, open Finder and navigate to the /tmp folder. Here you will see a list of temporary files generated by Photoshop; find and delete those related to old projects as this will clear out its cache. After this step has been taken, close and relaunch Photoshop; the error should no longer appear.
Step two is to change the scratch disk location within Photoshop’s Preferences. To do so, open up Photoshop and navigate to Edit > Preferences > Scratch Disks before selecting your preferred location and clicking OK.
Change the location by pressing Ctrl + Alt (Windows) or Command + Option (Mac). Using an external hard drive as scratch disk may be especially useful if your primary one is unavailable for some reason.
Backup all data on the hard drive or SSD where Photoshop stores its files as an extra safeguard in case cleaning up cache or temporary files accidentally deletes files you need to keep. MacKeeper offers additional features beyond just Duplicate Finder that might come in handy here as well.
Scratch Disk Options
Photoshop, being a graphic design program, generates many temporary files which can fill up space on the scratch disks quickly and lead to error messages such as “Scratch disks are full”. There are multiple solutions for dealing with this issue.
Dependent upon the storage device you have, there may be several solutions to free up space: moving files elsewhere or deleting them may do it; another way would be adding a second hard drive as your default scratch disk in Photoshop’s preferences – this should give you more storage and possibly prevent another error message from showing up in future sessions of Photoshop.
To change the scratch disk, navigate to Photoshop > Preferences and then Scratch Disk icon – choose which drive you would like as your default scratch disk before selecting OK.
Pressing Ctrl + Alt (Windows) or Cmd + Opt (Mac) can also clear your scratch disk, clearing away any temporary files which might be taking up unnecessary space on it. This will reset it and eliminate any files which may be taking up extra room on the drive.
Reducing the number of temporary files created by Photoshop is another effective strategy to reduce its memory footprint. If you specify an image size incorrectly – such as choosing centimeters instead of pixels when specifying its dimensions – this could generate an excessively large file, taking up more memory than necessary.
Make sure your scratch disk is a solid-state drive rather than traditional mechanical platter drives for optimal performance – these have much faster read/write speeds that will enhance Photoshop.
With these handy tips and tricks, you can avoid these errors in Photoshop once and for all. Even going as far as to delete all temporary files will clear out its memory and prevent this error from ever appearing again – hopefully never to return! With any luck, Photoshop should run more smoothly than ever. Enjoy!
Scratch Disk Settings
Photoshop’s temporary files have occupied too much of your system drive. This could be caused by creating many files while working on large elements and not clearing them immediately – however this issue is easy to address!
For quick space-freeing solutions, the easiest way is often just deleting Photoshop Temp files directly. As a second option, MacKeeper offers an efficient solution: use its Duplicate Finder feature and choose “Delete”. In order to delete Photoshop’s temporary files with this method.
Change the scratch disk location in Photoshop’s preferences to see if that helps resolve your error. This option may be particularly effective if your problem occurs on a system drive as an external hard drive or partition could serve as the scratch disk; just be mindful that if you change its location all saved history and caches will be lost!
As another option, adding more RAM could also help speed up Photoshop and prevent future instances of this error.
To add additional RAM, open Photoshop’s Settings menu, then Performance. Within Performance options you can increase available RAM by moving sliders within memory usage range.
Increased memory may not be the only solution; ensure your SSD scratch disk provides optimal performance by setting its preference in Scratch Disk Preferences to use as scratch disk, and ensure its IO (Input/Output) overhead doesn’t lead to problems for Photoshop.
Scratch Disk Delete
Scratch disk clutter can interfere with your work and prevent Photoshop from functioning optimally, so it’s vitally important that the scratch disk be regularly cleared out and space freed up – it’s easy and will help keep Photoshop running efficiently!
Go to the Photoshop menu and select Preferences to open a window that allows you to configure scratch disk settings. Here you can choose which drives you want to use as scratch disks and how much storage space each drive should use, plus use Purge button to delete existing files off scratch disks.
If you are still experiencing the issue, an effective way to clear some space can be by deleting Photoshop temporary files using Finder. These are typically located within a folder with your project name followed by “Photoshop Temp”. Doing this will remove all unnecessary files while also wiping any progress made without saving.
Another solution would be to disable Photoshop’s autoSave feature; this will prevent it from saving files automatically and quickly filling up your scratch disk. However, in doing so it will become necessary to manually save projects periodically in order to avoid losing progress.
No matter, if it’s trying to free up space in Photoshop or receiving an error, clearing away clutter, is an extremely common occurrence that is easily remedied with just a few simple steps. When doing any significant change on your computer, always back up all files and photos beforehand in case anything goes awry.
