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I tried to use the Photoshop web beta while using InPrivate browsing in Microsoft edge, but I was faced with this error:

You may not have the minimum amount of disk space or RAM, or are accessing in incognito mode. Incognito mode is not supported. You can view or comment. To edit or save changes, open in normal mode or on a device with more disk space and RAM.

The PC has 8gb of ram and over 100gb free so I presume the issue is private browsing. I tried the "guest browsing" feature in both Edge and Chrome and got the same error.

Putting aside this specific example, how is it possible for a site to detect if I'm using incognito mode, and why might incognito mode not be supported in the first place? I can only imagine there must be something inherent about incognito mode that might break functionality of the app.

Zac
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In incognito/InPrivate mode several option are disabled, so a website only has to test these options to find out if you're visiting in this mode.

See the article Incognito Mode Detection: Detecting Visitors Who Browse in Private Mode for a number of such methods.

One of the methods is a JavaScript script available from fingerprint.com that does this test, with a very generous free offer. Any website may incorporate this script to do the test.

(There may exist other resources for that, but I have not searched further.)

If I had to guess why is any website insisting on not using this mode, I would think that it would like to force you to let it use its cookies.

harrymc
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