16 Replies Latest reply: Feb 3, 2010 11:45 PM by John Joslin RSS

    Scratch file deletion - where and what?

    Simmonscourt Community Member

      hello, i have already spent hours searching online for the answer and have not found it. i understand what scratch files are. i can no longer open some photoshop and premiere pro files as a result of scratch files being full. i have done everything that i could find online so far. i am not looking to dedicate more space to scratch files i would actually like to delete what i have.

       

      some sites suggested that scratch files are in some adobe TEMP file - couldn't find that anywhere

      another site suggested that the temp scratch files are called ~pst###.tmp - couldn't that anywhere

      etc,

       

      so my question is - where are they located? what are they called? is it okay to delete them?

       

      anyhelp would be greatly apprecaited. i am running Windows XP with 2.40 GHz and 3.0 GB of Ram.

        • 1. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
          Curt Y Community Member

          To find location of scratch files in PS go to edit/preferences/performance.  You will see the location(s) and size there.

           

          Disk cleanup utilities can be used regularly to delete temp files.

           

          Also, even if you have space on the HD scratch disk, PS requires large blocks of contiguous space.  So it is also recommended after cleaning up the temp files you defrag the drive.

          • 2. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
            emagine_Miker Community Member

            To some degree the scratch files on your system are determined by your setting of the Scratch file disk (in Preferences under Performance).

             

            Today the temp files on my system are called "Photoshop Temp14284131004" on the root directory of my first choice for a scratch disk but that just on my system, today.

             

            What they are called on your system, I guess,  would depend on the PS 'log that determines that.

             

            Miker

            • 3. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
              Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

              When one exits from PS normally, the Scratch Disk files are automatically deleted. If you have a crash, or exit improperly, they will be left over. Only PS can use those, so they are basically worthless and can be deleted. Now, if you try to do that for your current session, it will be "in use by another application," and you'll not be able to delete it.

               

              Hope that this helps,

               

              Hunt

              • 4. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                Chris Cox Adobe Employee

                Even if you crash, the scratch files should be automatically deleted by the OS.

                If not, they'll be deleted the next time Photoshop launches.

                • 5. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                  John Joslin Community Member

                  Chris Cox wrote:

                   

                  Even if you crash, the scratch files should be automatically deleted by the OS.

                  If not, they'll be deleted the next time Photoshop launches.

                   

                  This has never happened for me Chris.


                  If I fail to exit Photoshop correctly – which can happen for reasons beyond my control, like a power cut – the temp file is still there and, if I don't delete it, will stay there forever. Neither XP nor Vista will delete it automatically.

                  • 6. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                    Chris Cox Adobe Employee

                    Weird.  We unlink the files when we create them, so they should be deleted after the last reference (Photoshop) goes away.

                    I wonder if the delete/unlink code on Windows is broken (and QE missed it)?

                    • 7. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                      John Joslin Community Member

                      Well Windows is notorious at leaving redundant temp files, log files, etc. Hence the need for regular cleanouts.


                      • 8. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                        Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                        Chris,

                         

                        This has not been my experience. Though I have had very few PS crashes over the decades, I have had system crashes, and the TMP files have been retained. These have been easy to delete. I just had to delete two PS session TMP files on my laptop, from system crashes in the past. In each case, the crashes were not within PS, but with other programs open at the same time.

                         

                        Now, my experiences only go from PS 2.5 through CS2, and the OS's up to XP-Pro. Maybe later versions of either will have different results.

                         

                        Hunt

                        • 9. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                          Bill Hunt CommunityMVP
                          I wonder if the delete/unlink code on Windows is broken (and QE missed it)?

                           

                          As mentioned above, I have had leftover TMP files from PS 2.5 through CS2, and OS's from probably Win 3.0 through XP-Pro. There might have been some where they WERE deleted, but most crashes have left them. If I have a power outage, that the UPS cannot handle, or similar, they are the first things that I think of, when all comes back up, and I had PS open at the time of the crash.

                           

                          Cannot comment on CS3 - CS4, or on Vista, or Win7. Just had no experience.

                           

                          Hope that this helps,

                           

                          Hunt

                          • 10. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                            Michael_Melton

                            I can tell you without a doubt that these files are being left.   I currently have 17 machines running xp/vista/windows7 and CS3/CS4.  When I have problems with Photoshop it is always the first thing I check, and a good amount of time deleting the temp files will clear things up.  Just in the past hour I was losing performance on one of my windows7 32bit boxes, and found an 8gig file a 5gig file and several smaller temp files.   I had cleared them out about 3 days ago on this machine.

                             

                            Any help you guys could give on this would be much appreciated.  It is driving me nuts.

                            • 11. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                              TLL... Community Member

                              When our workstations crash, these files remain too. Loooong ago in an OS far away (Win 3.0/95) we used to have a little batch file that ran on boot up to delete *.tmp files in 'x' directory. Used to do a defrag every mroning the same way, but with TB drives today that's a bit unrealistic...

                              • 12. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                                dec9 Community Member

                                CCleaner finds and cleans a lot of left over crapola. Free too.

                                 

                                http://www.ccleaner.com/

                                 

                                I use it all the time.

                                • 13. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                                  John Joslin Community Member

                                  dec9 wrote:

                                   

                                  CCleaner finds and cleans a lot of left over crapola.

                                   

                                  The first run is a bit frightening though!  


                                  But then it gets better.  

                                  • 14. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                                    dec9 Community Member

                                    (cleaned some 25 gigs off my friends computer with the cleaner once. I was like whao..... )

                                    • 15. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                                      Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                                      You know, I recall having such a .BAT file too. Boy, I had forgotten about that.

                                       

                                      Luckily, PS almost never crashes (anymore), so I have not even considered those .TMP files, until I recently committed some OE and ended up with two.

                                       

                                      As per Chris Cox's comments, I do recall some PS crashes, where there were NO TMP file left behind. I guess that things worked, as they were designed then. Out of habit, I do recall going looking for them, and even had to refresh my memory, as to where my Scratch Disks were located, and the hierarchy of use. None - gone! Still, it does happen sometimes, and always has for me going wa-a-a-y back. Just does not happen often, especially with the newer, more powerful computers.

                                       

                                      For general TMP files, I also use CCleaner, as mentioned by Dec9. Other programs and operations leave tons of these behind. MS is particularly guilty of this.

                                       

                                      To the OP, maybe a .BAT file in the Startup to purge the Scratch Disks of .TMP files would still be in order - or maybe a neater package nowadays. Just be careful, so that no other file types are affected. If one has totally dedicated Scratch Disks, it will be safer, but even I will occasionally locate a folder, or two, onto those otherwise dedicated HDD's. That could be tragic, if I forgot and ran a global Del command on them - I would hate myself in the AM.

                                       

                                      Good luck,

                                       

                                      Hunt

                                      • 16. Re: Scratch file deletion - where and what?
                                        John Joslin Community Member

                                        Just in case the original poster ever comes back – your question is correctly answered by Curt and Mike in posts 1 and 2.


                                        Most of the rest is waffle.