- Adobe Photoshop is a long-standing software program used for editing.
- Cached files can build up on Macs and take up extra disk space.
- Photoshop has its own virtual memory system which can be turned on and off.
Adobe Photoshop from Adobe Systems in San Jose, CA has been around for decades and is generally software as a service via its Creative Cloud for the monthly subscription price of $10 per month. Over time, as Photoshop runs, it stores temporary files on your Mac’s drives to speed up performance, which can have side-effects. To clear out these cached files, you can select **Edit, then Purge, then All** from Photoshop’s menu bar.
Adobe’s installation footprint on the Mac has grown large and includes the Creative Cloud install, the Photoshop folder, and /Library/Application Support/Adobe. You can clean up a few of these files yourself on your Mac if you know where to find them. In /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop 2023/AddOnModules/sensei_model_cache, for example, are several hundred versioned megabytes of cache files you can remove. If you don’t use Apple’s Garageband or Logic app, you may find folders for additional app support files for those apps within Application Support, which can safely be deleted.
In Photoshop’s Preferences, you can also turn scratch disks on and off in **Preferences->Scratch Disks**. Photoshop will only display drive volumes in this list which it thinks are suitable for VM use. Additionally, there are several other settings in Photoshop’s Preferences that you can adjust to get even more performance out of the app.
Ultimately, the best way to clean up the Photoshop cache and extra files is to uninstall it, reinstall it, and then remove any excess files from a clean install. To uninstall Photoshop, use Adobe’s Creative Cloud app, then reinstall it the same way. Keeping your Photoshop installation caches clean and optimizing scratch disk space will speed up Photoshop and reduce the number and size of files stored on your Mac’s local drive volumes.
