Industry observers note that you might actually be affected by a system bug that can take up as much as 500 GB of storage. If you’re currently experiencing problems with storage space on your Windows 11 PC, it may not be your own fault—even if you’re hogging a massive number of files and/or apps.
According to the latest update, but it turns out this fault can cause a system’s drive to grow increasingly full. The problem is linked to the Capability Access Manager service, responsible for app permissions in Windows. Buried in the patch notes for Windows 11 patch KB5095093, there’s this line: “This patch improves disk space usage for the CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal file.” At first glance, you might think nothing of it.
In a fresh development, in some cases, it can even fill the drive completely, which will significantly reduce system performance—as experienced by this Reddit user. The file in question should normally only take up a few MB of storage space, but on some PCs it can amount to several hundred GBs.
In a fresh development, this is because it doesn’t show which folder is causing the increased storage usage. You can only see whether the drive is already full or not. Simply checking the list of apps installed on your system and taking up space on your drive (which you can do under Windows Settings → System → Storage) usually won’t reveal the problem.
As part of the ongoing story, it it’s several GB in size, you’re affected by the bug. Windows Current recommends instead using an app like TreeSize, WinDirStat, or WizTree (one of our favorite apps for checking PC health) to search for large files and spot where CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal is among them.
As part of the ongoing story, alternatively, you can use the Windows Command Prompt with administrator rights and enter the following command:.
Industry observers note that robocopy "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager" "%TEMP%\CAMCheck" /L /B /R:0 /W:0 /BYTES /NP.
According to the latest update, microsoft has indirectly acknowledged the problem with a fix for it, which is already available in the June 2026 optional patch but will be rolled out to all users in next month’s July Patch Tuesday patch. Apparently, this issue has been present in Windows 11 for some time, as the first reports of it date back as far as a year ago.
According to the latest update, you can install the optional patch by checking for patch KB5095093 via Windows Revision → Advanced options → Optional updates.
The report highlights that if you’re affected by the bug, you should avoid making any unauthorized changes to the file (like deleting it outright) or attempting to uninstall the Capability Access Manager, as this could lead to further errors.
Industry observers note that to learn more, see our comparison of Windows 11 Home and Pro. If you want to upgrade, snag it for cheap in the PCWorld Applications Store: now just $59 instead of $99. By the way: If you’re using Windows 11 Home, you’re missing out on the many benefits of Windows 11 Pro.
In a fresh development, this article originally appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.
The report highlights that after studying communication science, she went straight into a job at PCMagazin and Connect Living. Since then, she has been writing about everything to do with PCs and technology topics, and has been a permanent editor at our German sister site PC-WELT since May 2024. Laura is an enthusiastic gamer as well as a movie and TV fan.