"Could not open scratch file because disc is not available" Mac

I recently changed the Photoshop (CS6) Scratch Disk choice from the default Boot Drive to one of the other internal drives in my MacPro (OS 10.6.8).
When I restart Photoshop (CS6) I get the message:
"Could not open scratch file because disc is not available"
and Photoshop will not launch.
I then restart Photoshop with "Command - alt - shift" keys held down
(as per suggestion at <http://forums.adobe.com/message/3937003>)
and reset the preferences which allows Photoshop to come back.
(Resetting preferences returned the Boot Drive to scratch disk status.)
I have another MacPro that - same OS 10.6.8 and Adobe CS6 - and I don't have this scratch disk allocation problem.
What is going on with the one MacPro that prevents me from selecting a Photoshop scratch disk other than the boot drive?

Ignore Ownership worked. Thank you!
I saw this suggestion on another Discussion thread but wondered if that could be the problem since the non-boot scratch disks used on other computers here do not have this property chosen.
"Permissions", "Ignore Ownership", and "apply to enclosed items" remain a mystery to me.
As for Terminal, I've had my hand held a couple of times while I went there and it was not a comforting experience.
Our work setup depends on complete access by everybody to everything (Read&Write Privileges apply to everyone here). We occasionally swap drives between computers which may cause problems, but why should it and how am I to know. The computer that prompted this discussion had its main hard drive replaced a couple of months ago which may have contributed to the problem.
Is there a down-side to ignoring ownership on everything and having "read-write" privileges apply to everyone (aside from lax security)?

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"could not open scratch file because disc is not available"

Help. I am running a new photoshop CS5 (12.0.4) on a new I-mac running 10.7.1
The program seem to load and authorize correctly but when I try to open it I get 2 sequential error statements
"could not open scratch file because the disc is not available"; then
"could not initialize photoshop because the disc is not available"
Where do I start?

Hi,
having the same problem here. We have 10 Mac Pro machines with OSX 10.6.8 and CS5 Photoshop 12.0.4. By now five of these machines have given the same error: "could not open scratch file because disc is not available" and "could not save ... because of a program error".
The scratch disk is the same one which has the system and it hasn't been touched.
I have repaired the disk permissions.
This just started two days ago and haven't noticed it before. Any clues what could be causing this?
Thanks,
Janne

I am trying to import developed images from LightRoom 5 in o Photoshop 6. I am receiving this message and the images will not open.....'Could not open scratch file because the file is locked, you do not have necessary access permissions or another progra

I am trying to import developed images from LightRoom 5 Photoshop 6 for further editing. I am receiving this message and the images will not open.....'Could not open scratch file because the file is locked, or you do not have necessary access permissions or another program is using the file. Use the 'Properties' command in the Windows Explorer to unlock the file. How do I fix this? I would greatly appreciate it if you would respond with terms and procedures that a computer ignorant user, such as me, will understand. Thanks.

Have you tried restoring the Preferences yet?

I am trying to import developed images from LightRoom 5 into Photoshop 6. I am receiving this message and the images will not open.....'Could not open scratch file because the file is locked, you do not have necessary access permissions or another progra

I am trying to import developed images from LightRoom 5 into Photoshop 6. I am receiving this message and the images will not open.....'Could not open scratch file because the file is locked, you do not have necessary access permissions or another program is using the file. Use the 'properties' command in the Windows Explorer to unlock the file'. This has not happened before. How do I change this?

Could not open a scratch file because the file is locked or you do not have the necessary access privileges. (…) | Mylen…
Mylenium

Could not open scratch file because the file is locked or you do not have the necessary access rights.

could not open scratch file because the file is locked or you do not have the necessary access rights.

It means what it says: Check your file permissions on your scratch disk.
Mylenium

Reloaded Photoshop CS5 (New Machine) and now it won't open, geta message "Could not open scratch file because disk is not available", so pS won't go any farther.

reloaded Photoshop CS5 (New Machine) and now it won't open, get a message "Could not open scratch file because disk is not available", so pS won't go any farther.

If prefs are the same as Settings on a MAC, OK, it would have been more
clear to me if you had said Settings since I didn't see anything related to
prefs. On a PC, I know what you mean, On a MAC, wasn't sure.
In a message dated 4/9/2015 9:13:48 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
reloaded Photoshop CS5 (New Machine) and now it won't open, geta message
"Could not open scratch file because disk is not available", so pS won't go
any farther.
created by c.pfaffenbichler
(https://forums.adobe.com/people/c.pfaffenbichler) in Photoshop for Beginners - View the full discussion
(https://forums.adobe.com/message/7421714#7421714)

Photoshop cse 5 error "Could not open scratch file because disk is not available" using Maverick

I am getting the following error:
"Could not open scratch file because disk is not available"
I am using Adobe Photoshop CS5 on the Mac Operating System "Maverick". The application is currently loaded on an external bootable drive. I created an external bootable drive using "Disk Utilities". I've changed the directory /private/ to 777 using the following command "chmod -R 777 /private/". I have created the external bootable drive in the event that my current internal drive crashes. I would just then have to swap the drives out. I created the external bootable drive using DYNEX SATA Hard drive enclosure.
Photoshop General Discussion

I searched around and found the answer. My question was to specific. Jim Olvera had the same problem and this was the solution with the help of Adobe Support.
OS X Mavericks. I was able to resolve it after a chat discussion with Adobe support. It is indeed a permissions issue apparently, but not one that can be resolved with Disk Utility. I was able to change to another scratch disk by holding down "Command + Option" as I launched Photoshop, and that did it. Still can't use the previous disk as a scratch, though, even though permissions have been repaired.
JO
Thank you for your suggestion, but I could not even get to the point where "Photoshop" would even open up.
Thank you everyone!

Could not open scratch file

When I try and open Photoshop, I get the following error "Could not open a scratch file because you do not have the necessary access privileges" followed by "could not initialize Photoshop because you do not have the necessary access privileges". As a result, Photoshop fails o open.
I have tried repairing Disk permissions, I have deleted the Photoshop Settings file, and I have tried Resetting Home Folder Permissions.
I am the primary user, and it's only my user account that has the problem. When I try and Reset Home Folder Permissions for my account, the process never completes. When I perform the reset for the other users, it takes seconds.
I've tried reinstalling Photshop, but still get the same error and Photshop fails to start.
I concerned this is the beginning of a worsening problem with OSX LION.
Any suggestions???

Hi,
having the same problem here. We have 10 Mac Pro machines with OSX 10.6.8 and CS5 Photoshop 12.0.4. By now five of these machines have given the same error: "could not open scratch file because disc is not available" and "could not save ... because of a program error".
The scratch disk is the same one which has the system and it hasn't been touched.
I have repaired the disk permissions.
This just started two days ago and haven't noticed it before. Any clues what could be causing this?
Thanks,
Janne

PS CS6 (MAC) Can't open scratch file - locked

This is new behavior as I've used PS before on this computer and can't remember anything as having changed (ie. OS or new apps/settings). I get the "could not open scratch file because it is locked or you don't have permission" message and then PS quits.
I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling. I've tried deleting the settings file.
I'm using a MacBook Pro running os 10.7.5.

Have you tried to reset preferences? Start PS and immediately hold down shift cmd option keys. Should get a reset window.

Unable to start Photoshop CS6 - could not open a scratch file because the file is locked (Windows)

When I first installed Adobe Photoshop CS6 I was unable to run Photoshop or Bridge CS6. Photoshop would give me an error about "could not open a scratch file because the file is locked. If I ran either of these programs as an administrator they would run without issue, this led me to believe that there was a permission issue somewhere. After some digging I found out the both Bridge and Photoshop try to create a temp file (similiar to Photoshop Temp2777223910092) on the c:\ drive of the computer. In my case the user that I was logged in with did not have access to write to the root of the C:\ drive. Note that you run the program as the administrator and change the scratch disk location as that changes the preference for the administrator user and not the user that you are currently logged in as.
To get around this issue I first had to give the user that I was logged on with write permissions to the root of the C:\ drive. Next try and run Photoshop, you will get an error another error about the scratch disk and about and invalid or missing setting file. To correct this you need to have run Photoshop as an administrator, next you can go to Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6\Adobe Photoshop CS6 Settings and copy Adobe Photoshop CS6 Prefs and/or Adobe Photoshop X64 CS6 Prefs to Users\<your logged in username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6\Adobe Photoshop CS6 Settings.
Photoshop and bridge should now start up with no issues.
I hope that this can help others out there as this caused me a great deal of frustration when upgrading to CS6.

station_two wrote:
OK, here comes the explanation of what the scratch disk does and why it's optimal to have it on a physically separate internal drive (not partition!) other than your boot drive
I probably shouldn't say anything since it could complicate this thread, but the rules of thumb can be different under special circumstances when SSD is involved.
IF you have a LOT of empty space on your SSD-based system drive, then Photoshop can actually work great with it's scratch setting pointed at the system drive. This is because a) SSD transfers are much faster than spinning hard drives and b) there's no seek time, so simultaneous transfers to/from scratch and swap files aren't devastating to performance, and you can see a net gain because of the increased I/O throughput over what's possible using a separate spinning drive for scratch.
But if you don't have a huge amount of free space (hundreds of GB) on the system SSD, it's definitely better to use a separate drive, as station_two has said.
Also, up to about a year or so ago, you had to try to severely limit write activity to your SSD drive, since you could actually wear them out by repeated high data write activity. That's pretty much a non-issue now with the advent of things like the SandForce in-drive controller that does wear-leveling inside the drive. Modern drives will last 10 years or more in normal typical use, without special consideration.
As it turns out, making a RAID array of SSDs is a great way to boost performance across the board, have bunches of free space, and ensure even the heaviest usage doesn't shorten the drive life. I have done so, creating a 2 TB system drive C: made from 4 SSDs and Photoshop's swap file (and pretty much everything else) pointed to C:. This system flies, and I can barely tell when Photoshop and/or Windows "goes virtual" and starts using its scratch/swap files heavily. I don't even notice Photoshop auto-saves.
Sorry for the SSD diversion.
Back on topic:
Pretty much everyone who's successfully using a computer - Mac and PC users alike - comes to realize after a while that the task of integrating things on their computers and making everything work falls on THEM, not the developers of applications like Adobe. Some applications pose unique challenges, but to think you can just throw up your hands and try to make it someone else's problem when something goes wrong simply isn't a viable strategy. Maybe that's how things should be, but it's not how it is.
For those of you struggling to get Photoshop to run properly, bear in mind that it's on you to get things working. It works for most folks. It could be a configuration or setup choice you've made that may need revisiting, or some kind of restorative activity that you need to do, or even something very minor like clearing your Photoshop preferences, but it may well take your learning new things and doing things you didn't think you'd have to do to get back to where you can edit photos. It's no one's problem but your own.
So let us here on the forum help you - when we say to do something, try it. We're not here to jerk you around; we're users just like you who have already found the ways to make things work, and we'd like to help you do the same.
-Noel

I get this error upon launching PS5: "could not open a scratch file because the file is locked .."

I get this error upon launching PS5: "could not open a scratch file because the file is locked or ou do not have the necessary access privileges. Use the 'properties' command in the Windows Explorer to unlock the file". The applicaiton will not launch.
Supporting information - I recently changed the scratch disk from C drive to D drive (the back up/restore drive). The application wont launch so I cant change it back to the C drive.
Questions:
- How to I fix this .. from windows explorer how do I find "the file" that the error message refers to?
- Other ways to fix this?
Thanks Steve

Hi there! Because the forum you originally posted in is for beginners trying to learn the basics of Photoshop, I moved your question to the Photoshop General Discussion forum, where you'll get more specialized help.
To help others help you, please read through this article and provide any additional relevant details.

Photoshop won't start: Could not open a scratch file because the file is locked, you do not have necessary access permissions, or another program is using the file.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended
"Could not open a scratch file because the file is locked, you do not have necessary access permissions, or another program is using the file."
I've tried finding and checking and fixing permissions but no success.
This happened from one day to the next. I think it has to do with the sn attached to the disk rather then the motherboard. I have the suite co-installed with Symphony 5.05. I've tried reinstalling.
What's to b done? The rest of the Creative Suite 6 (AE, AI etc.) works fine.
Anyone...?
Loui

Have you tried restoring the Preferences yet?

Photoshop wont open get error could not open a scratch file because the disk is not available

Had to clone my hard drive to another drive on my computer.
I have been receiving a message "Could not open a scratch file because the disk is not available" I have tried UN-installing and re-installing...still the same message.
Does anyone have any idea how to fix this?
Thanks!

What do you have here.
If that does not help, reset your prefs
Hold fingers over Shift Option Command (or similar on Windows) then boot Photoshop and as fast as you can depress the 3 keys.

Unable to start Photoshop CS 6 Beta - could not open a scratch file because the file is locked (win)

The Program does nor start.
I the the following error message:
Gould not open a scratch file because the file is locked, you do not have necessary access perimssens, or another program is using the file. Use the "Properities" command In the WIndows Explorer to unlock the file.
Which file shoud I unlock?
What means "unlock"?
Adda

"Hello, Adda. Most users can use it without problems. Did you set strict permissions on your machine?
Also, is it a small SSD? you lose their speed benefit by not putting Photoshop's scratch file on it."
Most power users are having big problems, We don't put scratch files on our SSDs because we know that this will run those into the ground. They are not intended for the pounding of constant read / write cycles. We also switch off indexing and any other constant cycling technology. Again, SSDs are best use for static files. They are, in fact, intended mainly for super fast launch, which is what they do so well. Obviously, if all you have is an SSD, then you have to live with the shortened life.
I have my scratch files and my TEMP folder set to a huge and empty internal drive. I have my USERS folder hard linked to a different huge internal drive, where I also store MY DOCUMENTS. I have an even larger internal drive where I store MY PICTURES. This has worked flawlessly (and very fast) for CS5 and LR4 Beta 1. Only CS6 complains constantly.
"Yes, I agree, but sometimes, what sounds and smells like a bug is not one, hence the troubleshooting we're trying to do, before QE tries to reproduce it."
This one not may or may not be a bug. But since I own and run dozens of applications, and only CS6 is freaking out constantly, I would say that it is not normal behavior.

Error "Could not initialize PSE (or scratch file) because you do not have the necessary access"

I am having permissions problems on my Mac OSX, version 10.7.5. I receive the message " Could not initialize Photoshop Elements (or open a scratch file) because you do not have the necessary access privileges." Help please.
Message title was edited by: Brett N

It doesn't appear that the information I copied and pasted is showing up on this thread. I figured out what I should have done in the first place.
These are the files I deleted:
This is what is remaining in the Preferences file:
This is what is remaining in the Saved State file:

"Could not open scratch file because disc is not available" Mac

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