Reply To: Scratch disk full error on SPA

[Damon BellKeymaster]

Also, restarting PS should delete the temp files and it should go back up to 450GB free again. The reason why it shows only 9GB is because PS has 400GB+ of temp file taking up the space. These temp files are deletes when PS is restarted.

I have seen rare cases where PS doesn’t actually delete the temp files and that needs done manually. If you are using an external disk for scratch then it is easy because the temp files show up right on the root of the external. If you are using the system disk then Adobe buries the temp files in a path somewhere (can’t remember the exact location). They are also hidden files so to see them you would need to enable Finder to view hidden files.

If you don’t see the space clear up after restarting PS then try restarting the computer. If the space still doesn’t clear up then you will need to find the temp Adobe files and delete them.

Another interesting thing about scratch is it doesn’t actually write nearly the amount is says that the temp files that it is using. So with 400GB being used it might only write 5GB or something. I think each file it writes is a set size of 2GB or something but it may not actually write most of it…. it just uses that space on the disk. I showed this with read/write logs to Adobe and never got a real answer about why it uses so much more than it actually needs. So for that reason, I’ve never seen an external SSD slow PS down vs the system drive for scratch. So with this in mind, the amount of continual of wear/tear on the system disk may not be a big concern either….. but I still think best to play it safe and use an external. Also, just for the reason alone of it being easier to manually delete the temp files if needed makes external a way better choice.