Fix "Could not complete your request because the scratch disks are full" error

Fix “Could not complete your request because the scratch disks are full” error. How to prevent Scratch Disk errors in Photoshop. Scratch Disk errors usually appears when your computer has no more memory space to store Photoshop datetime files. When this error appears, Photoshop hangs or won’t load at all. There are several things you can do to fix the “full disk” error in Photoshop. This also allows your Photoshop to use more RAM and delete temporary files to reclaim your memory space.

Table of Contents:

What is Scratch Disk?

In simple words “Scratch Disk” can be referred to as temporary storage for Photoshop.
Photoshop requires some free space on the computer’s HDD (Hard-disk drive) or SSD (Solid-state drive) to create a temporary cache while running processes that include launching Photoshop, opening images, editing images, applying filters/effects, layer creation, etc.

Generally, the recommended amount of scratch disk space for Photoshop is 20 – 30 GB. This means that at least 20 or 30 GB of free space should be always available for Photoshop to perform specific operations. Additional free space may be required in cases where you’re working with large-sized documents.

Photoshop decompresses each file when you open it and creates a temporary cache on the Scratch Disk (which gets deleted after the user closes that file in Photoshop). Based on the user’s workflow some large-sized files create a large-sized temporary cache on the Scratch Disk when Photoshop decompresses them. If Photoshop doesn’t have enough free space on the HDD or SSD it will generate a Scratch Disk error.

Fix “Could not complete your request because the scratch disks are full”

Free up space on your computer

The first thing you should try is to delete all junk files from your computer. This will free up your memory space which Photoshop can then be used to store temporary files.

Check your memory on Windows:

Open Settings application.

Go to System. Select storage to view your computer details.

You will see what are being used to use of memory. This thing will help you decide what to delete.

Check your storage on your Mac:

Click the icon of Apple on left and select the ABOUT Mac. Then select Manage. It will show what content is using how much space, as well as give items to free up memory.

Delete temporary files in Photoshop

Photoshop creates and stores temporary files on your storage. These files can be safely deleted after you close Photoshop. This helps you reclaim a memory of your share space.

Windows

Click Windows + R at the same time to open Run, type the following and press Enter: % temperature%

When opening the temp folder, look for files named Photoshop or PST.

Right-click the file and select Delete.

Right-click the Recycle Bin on your desktop and select Empty Trash.

On Mac, use Spot Light to search for temporary files and delete them.

Change disk scratch on startup

On Windows, launch Photoshop and press and hold the Ctrl and Alt keys at the same time.

On Mac, open Photoshop. Press Command and Option at the same time.

Select Startup from the menu -> OK.

Change Scratch Drive in Photoshop

By default, Photoshop only uses your drive’s operating system as the drive. If you have multiple drives or partitions, you can avoid the “full player” error.

Click on the Photoshop menu at the top, select Preferences, then Performance.

Turn disk on and off in the scratch disk section.

Turn off automatic restore feature in Photoshop

Photoshop automatically saves your files as you work on them, but this will increase the amount of memory it uses on your computer. If restoring autosave doesn’t do much for you, you can disable it to save some space on your saver disk.

Click on the Photoshop menu at the top, select Preferences, then select file handling.

Uncheck the box that says Automatically Save recovery information.

Preventing Scratch Disk related errors

There are steps you can take to prevent the Scratch Disk error from ever occurring:

Dedicate a hard drive exclusively to Photoshop.
Depending on your workflow if you’re a power user that works with big files daily, you can install or plug in a new hard drive to your computer or create a new partition on the existing drive and set it as the Scratch Disk in Photoshop’s preferences.
Make a habit of deleting unused or unwanted files.
It’s always a good thing to keep your files organized and delete unused or unwanted files that are taking up space on your computer’s drive. It will leave an ample amount of free space for Photoshop’s Scratch Disk requirements.

Delete Photoshop’s Temporary files.
If you need to force quit Photoshop, sometimes the temporary files are not deleted automatically. The application thinks that you may want to use them later, so it saves them.
Photoshop temp files are typically named ~PST####.tmp on Windows and Temp#### on Mac (where #### is a series of numbers).

I can remember when I first realized how crucial Scratch files were toward the last 32 bit versions of Photoshop when none of us had more that 4Gb of RAM, and Photoshop could only access about 2.5Gb. There was a hack which allowed Windows to access more of the 4Gb but still not all. I think this was CS4 and CS5 days. What would happen is that third party plugins would crash and printers would always fail and we realised that if you gave Photoshop all of your RAM there was nothing left for the likes of Topaz and your printer, so the trick was to remember that Photoshop could use Scratch space when it ran out of RAM, and to save some for System and third party plugin use.

Regarding orphaned Photoshop Temp files, there have been several times when I have accessed the root directory of my primary Scratch drive in order to get a screen shot for a forum answer, and discovered maybe 30Gb of Scratch files with old dates on them. Generally speaking, any Photoshop temp files without today’s date on them can be deleted, but I guess it is safest to close Photoshop before doing that. Photoshop can be stingy about giving back Scratch space once it is created, and the same goes for system RAM, so if you are short on resources you can speed things up significantly by Purging All or restarting Photoshop.

Of course we all have ample resources nowadays. Bert Monroy impressed one of the attendees at his workshop this week with his 90Gb of RAM. This person repeatedly mentioned it with real awe in his voice. Jane knew that our Dave has 256Gb RAM, and 32Gb of video RAM, and says she was sorely tempted to do a Crocodile Dundee on this person. ‘That’s not a lot of RAM. _THIS_ is a lot of RAM!!!’

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