Photoshop temporary files, while crucial for smooth operation, can gobble up storage space on your Mac. If you're running low on disk space or suspect these files are causing issues, here's how to find and safely delete them.
Photoshop is a highly versatile photo editing tool with limitless possibilities. With the help of the Photoshop application, a user can manipulate a single pixel. As the Photoshop program is working with so much data, this is why it creates a lot of temporary files while editing. These Photoshop temp files can be huge and occupy gigabytes of space, and if Photoshop does not close correctly, these files can be left sitting in your drive, taking up huge space.
Many Mac users are confused about what to do with Photoshop temp files and how to locate them. This article provides all the details you need to know to find Photoshop Temp files on Mac and Windows.
Photoshop works with a lot of data at once and thus generates quite a lot of temporary files while working with large projects. Photoshop saves this data collected from your work to local “scratch” files. This is why the space occupied by the Photoshop temp files is also known as a scratch disk.
Photoshop temp files serve two purposes. One is that they prevent the PC RAM from getting overloaded. RAM overloading can crash the Photoshop application, which might again result in the end-of-file error on Photoshop. To avoid that, Photoshop stores these temporary files on Mac storage volumes.
Another is they create a continuous backup of files. In case the program or your computer crashes, you will be able to recover the files. These files are supposed to be deleted automatically when you close Photoshop. But sometimes they remain there in your Mac volumes making it overloaded with big files. Ultimately, when the Mac volumes run out of storage space, it results in Photoshop scratch disk error.
So, the actual question is, where are Photoshop temp files located on your Mac, and how do you delete Photoshop temp files on Mac?
Note: If you have accidentally closed the Photoshop application without saving the project, or because of the Photoshop scratch disk error Photoshop crashed unexpectedly; You might have encountered a total loss of Photoshop files. Many such factors like application crashing, macOS halting or freezing, etc can lead to Photoshop file loss. Fortunately, you can recover unsaved or deleted files in Photoshop on Mac.
Photoshop temporary files location is by default on the temp folder of Mac. And on Windows, open the File Explorer in Windows and navigate to the C Drive. C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp is the default location for temp files.
Note: Before accessing the Photoshop temp files on your Mac, make sure none of the projects are running on the Photoshop application. If there are any running projects, save them, and quit the Photoshop application properly.
To find and delete Photoshop temporary files On Windows, use the Disk Cleanup utility and perform the following steps:
Due to these limitations, it is suggested to delete the temp files periodically. However, there are a few precautions that you need to take before deleting the Photoshop cache or temp files on Mac.
Note: Refer to the article, in case your Photoshop fails to launch.
Here are some of the things you should take care of before deleting Photoshop Temp files.
Once it is done, access the Photoshop Temp files location as mentioned below. Select all the Mac Photoshop temp files and delete them.
Library > Application Support > Adobe > Adobe Photoshop > Caches > Temp
After deleting the Photoshop Temp files, empty the Trash folder to reclaim your storage space. After this, you will be able to see how much space you’ve saved.
It is completely safe to delete the Photoshop temporary files from your Mac PC. The job is usually done automatically by your computer, but it doesn't happen every time with Photoshop thus you can perform the task manually.
Mac Photoshop temp files also have advantages, such as:
Photoshop temp files on Mac tend to occupy a large amount of space. Hence, it is suggested to clear the Mac PS temp files from time to time. If you find any difficulties in locating Photoshop temp files on Mac, this article will guide you in finding them. Additionally, before clearing the Photoshop temp files, you need to take a few precautions, such as saving any currently working PSD files.
Photoshop saves the files it is working on to your computer in a temporary folder. You can probably recover your project, though it may require some digging.
Here’s how you can get rid of photoshop temp files on Mac:
1. Proceed to Terminal.
2. Enter "open / tmp"
3. Delete any files that begin with "Photoshop Temp."
It is completely safe to delete Photoshop temporary files, don't be concerned about losing anything. That is exactly what temp means. The files are not intended to remain there. There may be some files that cannot be deleted, which doesn't happen every time with Photoshop, thus you can perform the task manually.