CapabilityAccessManager eating disk storage, again

Question

CapabilityAccessManager eating disk storage, again

Finbo 20

I am running Win11, v25H2, OS 26200.8457 on a Dell laptop. Maybe 2 1/2 months ago, I had a problem in that my available disk storage was down to <5GB free, so I went to MS Support and after searching found that capabilityaccessmanager.db-wal was the file sucking up my disk storage. Another user directed me to another page where the 'solution' was to download 'Tree' or 'WinDirStat' and identify the problem file, then delete that file.

I downloaded WinDirStat and ran it as administrator and found that db-wal file eating up 83GB of space and finally managed to delete it. After that, my disk storage returned to about 135GB out of 220GB (256GB SSD) being used with Apps accounting for about 45GB and System Reserved accounting for about 65GB. But since then, when I turn on my laptop in the morning it now takes about 4-6 minutes to boot up when before it was always ready to use after about 45 seconds. Ok, annoying but I'll take the trade off. What annoys me more is that before I found that db-wal file stuff, I went through and deleted some personal stuff like pictures and emails that I would rather have kept, but my disk storage was at the point where email was barely functioning - I couldn't receive email until I deleted some and some internet pages wouldn't load, period... And when I went to System/Storage I'd get really odd listings, like "1.77TB Used, O tb Free" or "3.64 EB used, 1.37EB free" with a top ribbon of Korean Characters spelling out something... Hey, I got a 256GB SSD drive so what the heck is this nonsense?

That was about 2 months ago. However, I've noticed in the past 2-3 weeks my free disk storage has been shrinking again, to the point where I now have <8GB free, again, and I'm getting those pop-ups, again, from Dell saying "unable to create system backup, please free up disk space". I have run WinDirStat and yes, capabilityaccessmanager.db-wal is now at >65GB, again, and my System Reserved is back up at 142GB. From WinDirStat, I right-clicked that file and selected 'delete' but nothing happened other than it changed color, but didn't go away even though I restarted my laptop right after. I found another MS Support thread where it said to go into Services from the Start menu, find capabilityaccessmanager and then click 'stop' and "don't run at startup", but then there was a caution in that same thread that stopping Capability... could mess up your Bluetooth connections so I didn't do anything more than hit 'stop'. And yes, when my laptop now boots up, after the 4 minutes to get off a blank screen while it's thinking, my internet connection sometimes takes another 3-4 minutes to connect up.

I don't want to try to delete that db-wal file again, at least without step-by-step "click this button, type this in, etc." instructions because if I hosed up the display and possibly the wifi the first time, who knows what I'll accomplish trying it again.

So, please, if anyone out there can give me the step by step instructions, thank you in advance. I did find one thread where a bunch of commands were typed out but some of them had to be typed in 'in safe mode' which I don't recollect knowing how to do with Win11. I'm so tired of fighting this thing... maybe an idea for the next Godzilla movie should be him/it against the Dreaded Db-Wal monster...~! Who will win??? Will Db-Wal suck all the fire out of Godzilla??

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Lychee-Ng 20,785 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Finbo,

That definitely sounds troublesome. Just wondering, how did you delete the file last time? (since you mentioned in the original post that you managed to delete it before, only now that the file grew back).

If the commands were working until the deletion, then it's possible that that service has come back during the time you entered them. You can temporarily turn off BitLocker if we really want to avoid it during the fixes, but let's try one more time to see if anything is different.

Stop the service that is locking the files
1. Press Windows + R > type services.msc > press Enter
2. Find Capability Access Manager Service > right-click and Stop
3. Set its Startup type to Disabled > Apply > OK > Restart your PC
Check Services one more time to make sure it's not running.
Open File Explorer > go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager
Delete the bloated capabilityaccessmanager.db-wal file
Set startup type for Capability Access Manager Service back on > Restart PC
(Optional) Once free up your space, go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps
1. Look for any services and / or programs possibly relate to Network management
2. For Dell, it can be SmartByte or other OEM services > disable them and monitor the file.

Let me know which step you're stuck on with the process above, and we will work from that onwards.

Finbo 20 Reputation points

2026-05-26T17:51:32.1+00:00

Oh my goodness, it looks like this last method actually WORKED!!! I checked prior to turning off camsvc and that .db-wal file size was >70GB. I went through your steps, turned off camsvc, disabled it from starting, restarted the pc, verified that camsvc was off, then file explorer, find the file, right click and deleted it. Then went back to 'services' and turned camsvc back on with a delayed start, and restarted my pc.

Lo and behold, my pc restarted in about 45 seconds instead of the 5+ minutes it has been taking for the last month. I checked 'services' to make sure that camsvc was on, yes it was, and then checked that .db-wal file size and it is now <9MB...!!!

SUCCESS ! ! ! Thank you SO MUCH for coming up with a method to fix this darn problem!!! I wish I could give you 100 upvotes - your method was so much easier, so much cleaner, and so much less dangerous than other methods I've found out there. I printed off these instructions and will keep them in a safe place because I'm sure this will come up again in the future, until MS figures it out and fixes it once and for all.

Note: The first time I was able to delete the .db-wal file I used WinDirStat to find the file, then kept right and left clicking that file, opening 'properties', clicking 'delete', and 'ok', and this or that and finally deleted the blasted file - in other words I can't give you how I did it the first time and definitely can't reproduce the 'dumb luck' method I used.

Interesting little sidenote - when I went into File Explorer and found the CapabilityAccessManager folder, it was highlighted in red - no idea how that happened or what I had previously clicked to do that.

Thanks again ! ! !
Lychee-Ng 20,785 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-27T06:09:22.85+00:00

Glad I could be of help, Finbo. As this process seemed to work, I've moved it as a separate answer. It'd be helpful if you can mark it as accepted, so others in the community facing similar problems can better find it. Thanks for your time!
Finbo 20 Reputation points

2026-05-27T20:52:03.91+00:00

I tried this on the partner's laptop and it wouldn't work - UNTIL - I went back to one of the other posts and got into the Command Prompt and typed in that

takeown /f "c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\capabilityaccessmanager" /r /d y

And

icacls "c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\capabilityaccessmanager" /grant administrators:f /t

Otherwise, the C-A-P folder in File Explorer wouldn't even open even though I right-clicked, went to properties and unchecked 'read-only', apply, ok, or any other setting.

But, once I took ownership, I was able to just slide right through your instructions with no problems. System Storage went from ~1.4GB free to >85GB free...
Lychee-Ng 20,785 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-28T06:05:17.7633333+00:00

Ah yes, because the files are in a system folder so you need to give yourself highest level permissions to modify it. I didn't add that step in this one because you already did it with the earlier commands! Thanks for adding!

2 additional answers

Your answer

Finbo 20 Reputation points

2026-05-26T17:51:32.1+00:00

Oh my goodness, it looks like this last method actually WORKED!!! I checked prior to turning off camsvc and that .db-wal file size was >70GB. I went through your steps, turned off camsvc, disabled it from starting, restarted the pc, verified that camsvc was off, then file explorer, find the file, right click and deleted it. Then went back to 'services' and turned camsvc back on with a delayed start, and restarted my pc.

Lo and behold, my pc restarted in about 45 seconds instead of the 5+ minutes it has been taking for the last month. I checked 'services' to make sure that camsvc was on, yes it was, and then checked that .db-wal file size and it is now <9MB...!!!

SUCCESS ! ! ! Thank you SO MUCH for coming up with a method to fix this darn problem!!! I wish I could give you 100 upvotes - your method was so much easier, so much cleaner, and so much less dangerous than other methods I've found out there. I printed off these instructions and will keep them in a safe place because I'm sure this will come up again in the future, until MS figures it out and fixes it once and for all.

Note: The first time I was able to delete the .db-wal file I used WinDirStat to find the file, then kept right and left clicking that file, opening 'properties', clicking 'delete', and 'ok', and this or that and finally deleted the blasted file - in other words I can't give you how I did it the first time and definitely can't reproduce the 'dumb luck' method I used.

Interesting little sidenote - when I went into File Explorer and found the CapabilityAccessManager folder, it was highlighted in red - no idea how that happened or what I had previously clicked to do that.

Thanks again ! ! !
Lychee-Ng 20,785 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-27T06:09:22.85+00:00

Glad I could be of help, Finbo. As this process seemed to work, I've moved it as a separate answer. It'd be helpful if you can mark it as accepted, so others in the community facing similar problems can better find it. Thanks for your time!
Finbo 20 Reputation points

2026-05-27T20:52:03.91+00:00

I tried this on the partner's laptop and it wouldn't work - UNTIL - I went back to one of the other posts and got into the Command Prompt and typed in that

takeown /f "c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\capabilityaccessmanager" /r /d y

And

icacls "c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\capabilityaccessmanager" /grant administrators:f /t

Otherwise, the C-A-P folder in File Explorer wouldn't even open even though I right-clicked, went to properties and unchecked 'read-only', apply, ok, or any other setting.

But, once I took ownership, I was able to just slide right through your instructions with no problems. System Storage went from ~1.4GB free to >85GB free...
Lychee-Ng 20,785 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-28T06:05:17.7633333+00:00

Ah yes, because the files are in a system folder so you need to give yourself highest level permissions to modify it. I didn't add that step in this one because you already did it with the earlier commands! Thanks for adding!

Answer 1

Finbo 20

Sorry, had family affairs that cropped up and wasn't able to get back to this until now...

I'm having other problems with my laptop that may/may not be related to this db-wal problem, specifically when I go into Task Manager, my Firefox web browser usually opens multiple instances even though I've only got one or two tabs open, and also using up to 800MB of disk space... I used the 'refresh' option in Firefox and it looks like at least the disk space problem may be gone...

Anyway, back to this db-wal problem. It's now using ~71GB and I've only got supposedly ~1.5GB free. I've done the usual Disk Cleanup with Clean System Files option, but that says it's only freeing 15-20MB (and yet Systems/Storage shows "no action required" on freeing space).

So, back to your instructions above - I'm not going to attempt them yet because

User's image

I'm not going to start anything because I just know that I'll click something that shouldn't be, or some option ("do you really want to delete this?") will pop up and I'll say yes when it should be no...

Lychee-Ng 20,785 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-25T07:11:28.47+00:00
Hi Finbo, sorry for the late reply and the inconvenience. Here are the files I was talking about.

capabilityaccessmanager.db

capabilityaccessmanager.db-wal

capabilityaccessmanager.db-shm

If that fails or you're not granted permissions, try again with this instead of File Explorer path. Press Win + S > find Command Prompt > right-click it and Run as Administrator. Enter the following commands one by one:

net stop camsvc (to stop the Capability Access Manager service)

takeown /f "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager" /r /d y

icacls "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager" /grant administrators:F /t

del "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\*.db"

del "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\*.db-wal"

del "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\*.db-shm"

Another tip shared by Dell users is that rapid log growth can sometimes be caused by a program called Smartbyte (Network Management app). It may be worth checking if you have it or anything similar installed, and if so, try uninstalling it to see if the issue improves.

Answer 2

Lychee-Ng 20,785 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi Finbo,

I can completely understand the frustration here, especially since the .db-wal file came back after you already cleaned it once. We will go through this together step by step (with some screenshots) so don’t worry!

Open Settings > System > Recovery > Advanced startup > click Restart now
After restart, select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings
Click Restart > press 4 or F4 to boot into Safe Mode > log into Windows
Press Win + R > paste %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsCapabilityAccess_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState
Press OK to open the folder > look for the following files and delete them:
1. capabilityaccessmanager.db
2. capabilityaccessmanager.db-wal
3. capabilityaccessmanager.db-shm
Once done, just restart your PC normally, no Safe Mode
Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Check these sections:
1. Camera
2. Location
3. Microphone
For each, turn OFF access for apps you don’t use, especially:
1. Unknown apps
2. Repeated background apps

You shouldn’t permanently disable CapabilityAccessManager, as that can break other system features. Deleting only the .db-wal file might be why the issue returned so I hope it works this time. If the problem comes back again, let me know and we’ll need to investigate further to identify exactly what’s triggering it.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Lychee-Ng 20,785 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-21T11:41:10.09+00:00

If you face any issues or confusion following the suggestions above, don't hesitate to ask!
Finbo 20 Reputation points

2026-05-25T21:33:19.2233333+00:00

I think it's time for me to go find a bigger hammer...

I started by going to Systems/Recovery/Advanced Startup and 'restart now'. Then Troubleshoot/Advanced Options/Startup Settings, then Restart. But I could not get into Safe Mode - I held down the F4 key while clicking on Restart, I typed in the 4 key then hit Restart...nothing worked to get into Safe Mode. Then Mr. Bitlocker came on and said I had to enter my Recovery Key...! I didn't even know I had a Bitlocker Recovery Key, but ok I started writing down the recovery key ID that was listed there and before I got more than 10 digits written down, my laptop shut down and I had to restart it. After the (now) usual 5 minute startup I looked up how to find my recovery key, then went on another laptop to log in to MS and retrieve it. By this time, I figured that if Bitlocker was shutting down my laptop so quickly I wouldn't have any chance in the world to type in that 48 digit key so I went to your method 2 which was via Command Prompt.

I know which big hammer I want to use...

Ok, that was easy enough. I ran Command Prompt as Administrator, then typed in the commands as you listed them, i.e., 'net stop camsvc, takeown...etc" one by one. Responses back looked like it was working, until I got to the delete commands. I typed in each one and got a quick burst of code, then "0 files deleted"...

I typed 'exit' to get back to Windows, restarted my pc, and ran WinDirStat to confirm what I was thinking and sure enough, .DB-WAL was still there at 72GB...

If I remember correctly, that hammer is on a hook next to my toolbox in the garage...

So, after all this I'm still at square one. My computer refuses to allow me to delete this file even though I supposedly took ownership of it...

I did look for other discussions on the internet on this and this .DB-WAL file seems to be driving a lot of people crazy, although very few report the file size as large as I'm getting - most complain that it's at 6-20GB and here I am with >70GB. But, there was also mention that MS has in the past week or so acknowledged there is a problem and has said a fix will be available 'perhaps' in mid-to-late June. I am hoping that they will 'fix' this because I don't want to go buy a new laptop since mine is only 6 years old and works just fine for what I need it to do - besides, if I get a new laptop and transfer my files and settings from old to new, what are the chances that this 'problem' will transfer all the data and apps? I think there's at least a possibility of that happening so buying/upgrading to a new computer is not a good option.

"If you automate a process that has errors in the hope of eliminating the errors, all you're really doing is automating the generation of the errors".

Thank you for your comments and assistance. IF there is some other way around the bitlocker or a solution to why I can't use the command prompt to delete those files, please let me know.

Share via

CapabilityAccessManager eating disk storage, again

2 additional answers

Your answer