System cleanup in one click
This application helps locate deleted partitions on any APFS, HFS, HFS+, FAT, NTFS, or ex-FAT based storage drive. It can quickly revive deleted volumes on your iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or Mac mini. Also, if the volume(s) on your Mac fails to mount, then this software helps recover the partition data quickly. There, the Mac reaches out over a Wi-Fi or ethernet connection to download the relatively modest Recovery software, which then bootstraps the download of the full macOS installer. Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the screen, and then select About This Mac. Click the 'Storage' tab, and then click 'Manage' on the right. Click 'Store in iCloud' to begin the process. MacOS analyzes your disk and attempts to save space.
Clearing a scratch disk on your Mac may not be a problem you'll run into often, but those working in apps like Photoshop should understand exactly how to solve for the problem when it pops up. Intensive programs like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro often serve this error up, and it can be really confusing.
Here, we'll show you how to clear scratch disk on Mac, how to empty scratch disk for use, why Photoshop scratch disks are full, and how to better manage memory to reduce or eliminate the frequency these popups occur. Best external hard drive 2019 mac.
What is a scratch disk?
Think of a scratch disk like a scratch pad of paper. You use the scratch pad to write down notes for something; maybe it's ideas for a book you're writing, or sketching some illustrations by hand before testing the waters in a design app.
Scratch disks work the same way. Large, intensive apps need a bit of hard drive space to use as virtual memory when there's not enough RAM to finish a task. Like a scratch pad, it keeps things there temporarily while it performs process-heavy tasks like editing videos or photos with many edits and layers. Though these files are temporary, they need a place to live – the scratch disk.
What causes the scratch disk error?
The main reason you see ‘Photoshop scratch disk full' errors are temporary files. If you force-quit apps like Photoshop often, temporary files don't disappear. The app thinks you may want to use them later on, so it saves them. These files may not show up as occupied memory, either, which adds to the confusion as to why you see the error message.
Other reasons you see the error is the drive where the scratch disk is located is out of space; this is most frequent when your Mac's storage is too full. Similarly, the partition Photoshop or other apps uses may be too full, and a limited amount of RAM available to the app may also cause this error.
What Do You Do When Scratch Disks Are Full?
When you see ‘Photoshop scratch disk full' Mac computers have no good recourse for solving the issue. It won't automatically clear disk space, or create a unique partition so the problem doesn't occur. You have to know the methods for clearing a scratch disk yourself.
How to clear scratch disk
There are a few tips and tricks for clearing your scratch disk that are effective, but remember the best path forward is always managing your memory proactively. Here, we'll show you how to clear a scratch disk partition, and show some apps that may prevent the errors from popping up ever again.
Clear your disk space
You're here to learn how to clear scratch disk in Photoshop, but the root of the problem is your Mac's cluttered storage space. How often do you save items and never touch them again?
CleanMyMac X has an incredible feature named Space Lens that provides you with an overview of your Mac's storage makeup so you can quickly identify which folders are overflowing with stuff. It analyzes your entire system and surfaces which folders are too bulky, and offers a quick way to delete files you don't need. Here's how it's done:
- Open CleanMyMac X on your Mac
- Select 'Space Lens' from the left side of the window
- Select 'Scan' at the bottom of the window
- When the app is done analyzing your Mac, select the folders you want to delete
- Select 'Remove' at the bottom of the window
The app also has a feature named Large and Old Files that's a lot like Space Lens, but examines individual files by size. You may have saved a movie long ago, then forgot all about it. CleanMyMac X reminds you about it, and lets you quickly and easily delete it from your Mac forever.
Delete Photoshop temporary files
Knowing how to clear Photoshop scratch disk errors is sometimes as simple as deleting temporary files. To locate and delete temporary Photoshop files, search your finder for any files with the extension '.tmp'. Photoshop begins its filename with 'pst', so anything matching those parameters can be deleted.
Clear Scratch Disk in Photoshop
While you want to know how to clear scratch disk Photoshop doesn't make it easy, does it?
When you want to clear your Photoshop scratch disk, you're essentially deleting its cache. To do that, follow these steps:
- Open Photoshop on your Mac
- Select 'edit' from the menu bar
- Select 'Purge'
- Select 'All'
- When the popup appears, choose 'OK'
Now your Photoshop cache is clear, and it's free to write more temporary files to a scratch disk.
Move your scratch disk
You can change the location of your scratch disk in photoshop, too! One popular method is to use an external drive as a scratch drive – just remember to leave it plugged into your Mac.
Here's how to change the scratch drive location on your Mac:
- Open Photoshop on your Mac
- From the menu bar, select 'Photoshop'
- Select 'Preferences'
- Choose 'scratch disk'
- Select the drive you'd like to use
- Select 'OK'
- Force-close Photoshop, then re-open it.
Now the location of your scratch disk is changed!
Defragment the hard disk
Macs don't need defragmentation, and if you have a modern Mac with an SSD, you can actually harm your Mac by defragmenting it. Macs with SSD drives manage file storage differently than old HDD Macs, so defragmenting them can actually do harm.
Your best bet is to create backups of your file system, and often. Get Backup Pro for Mac helps you automate your backups, sync files between computers and mounted devices, and encrypt those backups for safekeeping. You can also create projects within Get Backup Pro for saving files from apps like Photoshop!
Backing files up is a great option because there will be times when cleaning up an app's cache or files inadvertently destroy or delete files you actually wanted to keep. Having a backup is your safety net.
Is it Possible to Empty My Scratch Disk without Opening Photoshop?
Using CleanMyMac X is the best way to purge temporary files and clear up scratch disk space on your Mac without digging through Photoshop. Remember that scratch disks only hold temporary files, and those files don't always delete themselves when not in use.
CleanMyMac X's Maintenance module has a feature named 'Free up purgeable space' that tackles temporary files stored on scratch disk space. Thought it may be a good idea to run the entire Maintenance module and really get your Mac in perfect condition, freeing up purgeable space is great when you just need to free up space on a scratch disk. Just keep in mind you should have Photoshop closed when you run this module!
Conclusion
The power of Photoshop is the gift and the curse. It can do just about everything you want when it comes to editing photos, but it's consumptive. Clearing up scratch disk space may not be routine for you, but if you're a Photoshop power user, you'll likely run into it at some point.
Both Get Backup Pro and CleanMyMac X are available for free with a seven day trial of Setapp, a powerful suite of productivity apps for your Mac. In addition to those two apps, you'll get immediate and unlimited access to nearly 200 other amazing apps, all for free!
When the trial ends, Setapp is only $9.99 per month for unlimited access to the full catalog of apps. Why wait? Give Setapp a try today!
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
Read onSign Up
Contents
- How to free up space on a Mac?
- How to see the used Storage on a Mac?
- How to Fix Mac Startup Disk Full with pCloud Drive?
- Note: If you have very low disk storage you must do the following:
- Example:
If you are a Mac user and you have a smaller HDD Macbook, chances are you have seen this message at least once: 'Your startup disk is almost full' or you want to know how to free up space.
In this article, I will explain why this happens and how to never see this warning ever again!
How to free up space on a Mac?
What is a 'Mac Startup Disk'?
Your Mac startup disk is a volume or a partition of a drive that contains a usable operating system. You can set your Mac to automatically use a specific startup volume, or you can temporarily override this choice at startup.
What this means is that the startup disk is the 'home' of all the files needed for starting your Mac and using it.
Without a startup disk, you will not be able to switch on your computer.
Why is my Mac 'Startup Disk Full'?
In short, you have too many files. When this happens, it slows down all processes on your computer – see, in order to complete some tasks, your computer needs space to store temporary files and system files. When this happens and you run low on storage, the operating system needs to decide whether it can delete some files in order to complete the task. Most of the time this is not possible and the computer crashes or becomes very, very slow.
It is recommended that a startup disk should never be at above 85% of its capacity in order to work properly.
How to see the used Storage on a Mac?
If you want to see the exact types of files that are using the storage on your Mac:
Click the Apple in the top-left corner
Click on 'Storage'
Currently, I have 73.9 GB used and 425.2 GB Free.
Most of my used storage is from 'Other'
What is 'Other' in the Mac Storage?
According to Apple, in OS X El Capitan or earlier versions, 'Other' files are those that your Mac doesn't recognize as belonging to any other category. These include files within disk images or archives, data stored by apps such as Contacts or Calendar, and app plug-ins or extensions. When your Mac is running in Safe Mode, all files are categorized as Other.
How to Fix Mac Startup Disk Full with pCloud Drive?
What is pCloud Drive
pCloud Drive is a desktop application that creates a secure virtual drive on your computer, which you can use to easily store, access and work with your files in the cloud.
To add files and folders to your pCloud Drive, simply drag and drop* your data into your virtual drive. You can then be sure that they are safely stored in the cloud and synchronized on all of your devices.
*for this to work fast you need to have at least some free storage on your startup disk. If you don't, keep reading!
pCloud Drive provides a number of additional functionalities, such as integrated file sharing and synchronization through your computer.
Note: If you have very low disk storage you must do the following:
Choose the folder you want to Sync with pCloud:
Click on the pCloud icon and choose Sync to pCloud:
Create a folder on pCloud Drive:
Wait for the Sync to be completed:
This is very Important! After the Sync is finished, you must stop it with the cross icon:
After you stopped the Sync you can delete the files you just synchronized:
You can go to pCloud Drive and see the files you synced and use them as if they are on your computer! (A green icon means everything is synced.)
The app significantly eases your work upon performing file operations in the cloud, because with pCloud Drive you can work with your files using any software on your computer.
What this means is that if I have a vacation video in pCloud Drive I can watch it with no problem with the default video player on my computer. In my case VLC Player.
The best thing is that since the video is in pCloud Drive it is not actually on my computer but it's in the cloud and does not take ANY of my Startup Disk Space!
Another awesome thing is that I can watch this video also on my phone with the pCloud mobile apps OR if I'm using a different computer that does not have pCloud Drive, I can watch it via Chrome, Firefox or any other internet browser. I just need to go to my.pcloud.com and sign in. Here is what I see:
Same thing works for:
– Documents – I can open and edit them with any text editor with pCloud Drive or access them from any of the other apps. The same works for worksheets, PDFs, presentations etc.
– Photos – I can open them, see them or edit them with Photoshop or any other image editor.
– Audio files – I can listen to them on my default music player or with pCloud mobile and web apps music player. I can even create playlists within pCloud.
– Every other type of file – As long as I have an app or a program to open the file with, there is no problem for pCloud Drive.
Nice right?!
What this means is that you can move all the files that are using your Mac Startup Disk Storage in pCloud Drive.
That way they WILL NOT use any of the space on your computer and you will still have access to them and use them with the apps installed.
Example:
I have a 512GB SSD Macbook Pro Retina. I also have a pCloud Premium account which is 500GB of storage. This makes my Macbook capable of storing 1TB worth of files.
Sharing with pCloud Drive
You can share any file or folder that you have in pCloud Drive.
You just right-click on the file or folder you want to share and choose if you want to invite someone to the folder or create a so called Download link.
This way you can collaborate with people or share the vacation photos and videos with your friends for example.
pCloud Speed
When you use pCloud Drive, you don't even understand that your files are not stored locally. That's because of the super high speed that we offer for uploading and downloading files. We compared our upload and download speed with the ones of Dropbox and here are the results for 1.12GB file:
pCloud Security
To guarantee your files' safety, pCloud uses TLS/SSL encryption, applied when information is transferred from your device to the pCloud servers.
Disk Full Message Mac
Your files are stored on at least three server locations in a highly secure data storage area.
Optionally, you can subscribe for pCloud Crypto and have your most important files encrypted and password protected. We provide the so-called client-side encryption, which, unlike server-side encryption, means that no one except you will have the keys for file decryption.
Example:
I have a 512GB SSD Macbook Pro Retina. I also have a pCloud Premium account which is 500GB of storage. This makes my Macbook capable of storing 1TB worth of files.
Sharing with pCloud Drive
You can share any file or folder that you have in pCloud Drive.
You just right-click on the file or folder you want to share and choose if you want to invite someone to the folder or create a so called Download link.
This way you can collaborate with people or share the vacation photos and videos with your friends for example.
pCloud Speed
When you use pCloud Drive, you don't even understand that your files are not stored locally. That's because of the super high speed that we offer for uploading and downloading files. We compared our upload and download speed with the ones of Dropbox and here are the results for 1.12GB file:
pCloud Security
To guarantee your files' safety, pCloud uses TLS/SSL encryption, applied when information is transferred from your device to the pCloud servers.
Disk Full Message Mac
Your files are stored on at least three server locations in a highly secure data storage area.
Optionally, you can subscribe for pCloud Crypto and have your most important files encrypted and password protected. We provide the so-called client-side encryption, which, unlike server-side encryption, means that no one except you will have the keys for file decryption.
Conclusion
A lot of Mac users have the same frustrating problem. Startup Disk Storage fills up quickly on smaller versions (128GB and 256GB) and if you use it for work, you can fill up a 512GB Mac very fast too. Especially if you are a designer or a video editor for example, and work with large files. And even if you are not creating huge files, with the pace we are creating information is growing very fast:
Just think about this: smartphones and cameras that can shoot RAW files and in 4K, which means you'll have photos and videos of amazing quality – but they will also take a lot of memory so the more space you have, the better.
pCloud Drive helps you virtually add storage to your Mac (or any PC for that matter). You can move your photos, videos, music, documents any other kinds of files there and use them as if they are on your device with the apps you are used to. Also, you can access them on a smartphone via the pCloud mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Windows 10 Mobile, and in a web browser when you go to the website and sign in.
P.S.
Mac Pro Disk Full
If you never want to run out of storage on your iPhone too, read this.
