Microsoft's Windows 11 bug can eat 500GB of storage — how to fix

A persistent bug in Windows 11 is causing a system file called CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal to grow uncontrollably, consuming up to 500GB of disk space. The file is part of the Capability Access Manager service, which logs permissions for camera, microphone, and location access. Normally it stays under 2MB, but due to a logging error, it expands indefinitely. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and released a fix via the June 23 optional preview update (KBXXXX) and the subsequent July cumulative update.

To check if you're affected, go to Settings > System > Storage > Show more categories. If the System & reserved category exceeds 100GB (normal is 5-25GB), the bug may be active. To confirm, run this command as admin: robocopy "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager" "%TEMP%\CAMCheck" /L /B /R:0 /W:0 /BYTES /NP. If the file is much larger than ~57KB, you're hit. To fix, install the latest Windows Update (2026-06 Preview or later). The update optimizes how the file is managed, preventing future bloat.