CapabilityAccessManager is devouring my hard drive

Donald Gibson 140

Checking Storage in Settings (Windows 11) shows I have 83GB of Installed apps and 111GB of System and Reserved. Most people report System and Reserve should represent ~40GB. What is the extra 70GB?

Turns out it is a single file , a database for Capability Access Manager. Online commentors say it is supposed to store data for a month and then delete it. My file (and others on the internet) just keeps growing and today this single file is 66.5GB. My 221GB hard drive is full and my system is completely constipated.

Someone suggested deleting the file but I can't get at it. Completely protected by the program. I confess I'm not sophisticated enough to break through the security

I finally get through to Microsoft Support. She's never heard of the problem so check s with a supervisor. When she gets back online her solution is for me to buy a portable hard drive. Clearly this is a known issue but no amount of cajoling, begging or logic will get MS to budge. Can't help me. The support agent was adamant she was not allowed to assist me in deleting that file.

Won't help me.

Can anybody else?

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Joshua Chiapelli 0 Reputation points

2026-05-09T09:19:46.4466667+00:00

I just noticed the same problem on my computer (a bit tinier, 16GB on a 1TB drive, but still)... However, I can't delete the .db-wal file, even in safe mode. I searched what permission did I need to access this folder, but when all the folders were granted to NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM, the CapabilityAccessManager one is granted to owner displayed as ‘…’ (unreadable/invalid owner string)
So, I can't access this folder by any means, and the chkdsk command's access is denied, even if my account is an administrator one and if I'm in an elevated CMD...

Also, when I rebooted to exit safe mode, during the reboot, I had a bsod PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA... I don't know if it has something to do with it...

Thanks to anyone who could help me!
Andrew Phan 0 Reputation points

2026-05-11T13:48:52.2+00:00

Joshua, please see my answer. It may be of use to you.
_ wolf 5 Reputation points

2026-06-05T21:00:17.1466667+00:00
Hello Donald,

I searched, found and executed solutions that never fixed the original problem: a known bug in the Capability Access Manager.

This is simple and fast, and it works!

Your bloated CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal file is the result of a known Windows 11 bug where repeated background app requests (like Wi-Fi or location checks) cause the tracking database's log file to abnormally bloat. It is safe to delete and will rebuild itself at a normal size. [1, 2, 3]

How to Fix It

Follow these steps to safely remove the file and stop the service that’s causing the bloat:

Stop the Service: Press Win + R, type services.msc, and press Enter. Scroll down to Capability Access Manager Service (camsvc), right-click it, and select Stop.

Delete the File: Open File Explorer and navigate to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager. Locate CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal and delete it. (Note: Leave the main CapabilityAccessManager.db file alone).

Restart the Service: Go back to the Services window, right-click the Capability Access Manager Service, and click Start. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

If you are denied permission:

If Windows says the file is in use, you will need to boot into Safe Mode to delete it: [1, 2, 3]

Press Win + I to open Settings.

Go to System > Recovery and click Restart now next to Advanced startup.

Upon restart, navigate to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings and click Restart. Press 4 or F4 to enter Safe Mode.

Go to the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager path and delete the .db-wal file.

Restart your PC normally. [1, 2]
Alexis Loizou 0 Reputation points

2026-06-16T10:38:08.91+00:00

I have the same problem. I have seen that the db-wal file is the culprit (99GB!!) But the CapabilityAccessManager folder just isn't opening for me. I have tried in administrator mode and Safe mode too. Nothing doing. It won't open for me to identify the file and delete it. If there are other ways to get to the file, please suggest. I'm a novice at this.

Many thanks in advance

Alexis
Ramesh 181.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-06-16T10:42:08.9833333+00:00

@Alexis Loizou

Have you seen the accepted answer?

Click this link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/a/12743566
Alexis Loizou 0 Reputation points

2026-06-16T10:44:58.3166667+00:00

Hi. Yes, I have. I have followed the instructions. No dice. The folder won't open. I am still denied access. I'm stuck at this point. A
Ramesh 181.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-06-16T10:47:21.7733333+00:00

You don't need to open the folder. That means you didn't run those commands?
Michael Ganiel 0 Reputation points

2026-06-28T06:50:07.37+00:00

I found a solution if you can't get access to the CapabilityAccessManager folder:

When you get the Denied Access message, click on Security Settings >> Advanced Security Settings >> Owner.

Change the Owner to yourself (you need to have Administrator permissions on the PC).

Then close and reopen the folder and you now have access.
Alexis Loizou 0 Reputation points

2026-06-29T16:54:07.0566667+00:00

Hi @Michael Ganiel

Still haven't been able to gain access to the CapabilityAccessManager file after two weeks of trying. Best thing I've been able to do is wipe HD and reinstall Windows 11. I'm watching my HD capacity drop 1GB in size per day.

I am denied access to the CAM file above that _wolf suggests, so I try to open in safe mode. When I follow those instructions I hit another, unexpected block which is in the screeshot below... 'BitLocker... You must entery your recovery key to access Startup Settings' in safe mode. I have no idea what this is.

Any suggestions how to get past this?

keep on trying to delete the file, but no dice

Alexis
Alexis Loizou 0 Reputation points

2026-06-29T16:59:04.0466667+00:00

Hi Michael Ganiel

Can you be specific about the pathway you suggested if Windows does not allow access = Security Settings > Advanced security settings > Owner. I haven't been able to locate where that is. I'm on Windows 11.

I found the Bitlock Recovery key, entered this in safe mode, turned off the CapabilityAccessManager under Win-I but still windows won't allow me access to that folder. I have no idea how you have managed to execute the last instruction... go to the C:\ProgramData.....\CapabilityAccessManager. Windows will not let me access.

Many thanks

Alexis
Jeffrey Bihl 0 Reputation points

2026-07-11T00:46:50.99+00:00

My file was almost 570 GB

Answer accepted by question author

Stephen Murphy 105

I bumped this up a level so it is more visible as an 'answer' - albeit it is a mere tweak on what Emmanuel provided so all credit to him (I originally had it in the thread started by Anonymous user 10 March 2026)

Great thread that solved the same problem for me. Thanks to Donald for raising it and Emmanuel Santana for the advice.

I'll paste my slight tweak on the fix I needed to do and put it all here in one summary for anyone else needing help. I boldfaced a few points for emphasis (as others note: do NOT delete the db-wal file until AFTER you stop camsvc).

Context for anyone lost in the threads: What follows is how I followed the advice from Independent Advisor Emmanuel Santana responding to user Donald Gibson regarding the dramatic increase in ProgramData space being used by Capability Access Manager. Most of the text below is verbatim from Emmanuel (see above); credit to him for this fix

Start in SAFE MODE: Restart your PC while holding Shift, then choose Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart.

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator.

In my case, I had to do the next two steps in the order I write below; with the OP response, steps 2 and 3 were in the reverse order; if I used the OP order, then it would tell me the service was “stopping or starting please try again later”

2. Take ownership of the folder:

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

3. You MUST first stop the Capability Access Manager service (do not delete files until you stop this):

net stop camsvc

4. Grant administrator permissions:

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

5. Delete only the large WAL log file (leave the main .db file in place):

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

6. Restart the computer.

Per Emmanuel's advice and statements, after this, this outcome did indeed happen: “Windows should recreate the log automatically and it should go back to a normal size (usually only a few MB).”

I note that before the fix, my C: drive was at 200 GB and pretty much borked my computer because there were 0 (!) Bytes (!) left on my puny 256 GB C: drive. Others with larger drives have noted there seems to be a tendency for this to happen with the 256 GB drives BUT others report bigger drives just take a bit longer to fill up. Lots of chatter about this on reddit and Azure to the Max has a good thread on managing multiple units with this problem: https://azuretothemax.net/

The problem is likely to persist because the latest iterations of Windows updates have been terrible and one of them likely is not playing nice with the equally awful SmartByte app that Dell forces you to use (and is difficult to remove without breaking it). I have a Dell. I won't have it for long because SmartByte has long caused many problems. Even though this is likely a combination of bad Microsoft updates X SmartByte, the inherent issues with SmartByte prompted me to decide to abandon Dell.

As others note, apps like Rainmaker also seem to contribute to the ballooning CapabilityAccessManager*.db-wal file.

Thanks again Donald for a concise statement of the problem many of us have been having and Emmanuel for posting such a precise solution. While I knew which file was bloating and that I'd need to stop the service, the solution meant I could do so without killing my wifi or comm services.

Ed Kaz 5 Reputation points

2026-04-30T18:49:07.95+00:00

Thank you! I've been struggling with normal "disk cleanup" options for months trying to free up space. my Surface Pro 7 only has a 120GB SSD and I've been sitting at less than 100MB free even after uninstalling and deleting nearly everything on my computer! Your instructions were perfect and helped me identify and delete a 36GB WAL file. I'll continue to monitor and see how long it takes before I have to delete it again...
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Mario Castillo 0 Reputation points

2026-05-08T22:37:19.38+00:00
Hello Steven:

After doing this tweak myself everything went to plan, except that the capabilityaccessmanager process could never restart, which notably can lead to problems when trying to connect to wi-fi networks (as it is evidenced in this techcommunity post).

My experience suggested me that in order for the process to restart and rebuild the files, the permissions and ownership that step 4 redefined had to be restored to their previous status, which I accomplished by resetting the permisions to default with this command:

icacls "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager" /reset /T /C

Once I accomplished this, I opened the services with Win+R and typed "services.msc", made sure that the CapabilityAccessManager service was up and running (or made sure to start it by right clicking on it and starting). ONLY IF the service started successfully I would restart the computer normally and complete the solution.
Alyssa McKenzie 5 Reputation points

2026-05-12T12:20:57.26+00:00

Hello Stephen,

I wanted to point out a key instruction to anyone who may mess up and have my issue where internet stops working

When running the commands I ignored that I wasn't actually given proper permission when using

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

I was still able to delete the large WAL log file but my internet would not work and the service to rebuild it had stop working, in my case, I re-did the process but instead used

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

This gave me proper permission and I had to delete the entire folder, windows then rebuilt this folder and I could have internet again.
David 20 Reputation points

2026-05-22T23:42:30.16+00:00

Hello, Stephen!

I am having a problem with this process, and I'm hoping you can help.

I did step #2 (Take ownership of the folder.) BEFORE I did step #3 (stopping the camsvc)

I got the stopping or starting please try again later error.

I rebooted and everything and tried to do the process again with step 3 before step 2, but I got the same error about trying again later.

I guess what I need help with is: How do I UNDO what I did in step 2? It seems like that has to be done before the stop camsvc will work.

Can you help?

David
Richard Le Lohe 0 Reputation points

2026-05-23T01:28:55.3366667+00:00

Hello Stephen/Emmanuel/Mario,

I had the same problem as Mario plus the database file had gone. After following Mario's advice all worked fine. I did also put the ownership of the folder and the files I had taken ownership of back to SYSTEM.

I also observed David's stopping or starting message. Checked the services list and it was starting just had to wait to stop it.

Not sure if you need to take ownership but can see why you might need to so that you can delete the file. No doubt I will get a chance to try this again sometime in the future (on my Dell laptop) :-)

This was really helpful when I had managed to discover this very large (over 110 GB) file.
David 20 Reputation points

2026-05-23T02:33:33.3933333+00:00

I got it to work finally. No answer needed. :-)
Lucas Williams 0 Reputation points

2026-05-24T20:04:20.2633333+00:00

Hey I followed Emmanuel’s advice and it worked in getting back the space on my ssd but somewhere I made a mistake as now I can’t connect to the internet it just says no Wi-Fi networks found does anyone know how to fix this?
Richard Le Lohe 0 Reputation points

2026-05-24T21:49:28.41+00:00

Lucas, I had same problem after doing take ownership and capabilityaccessmanager process could not restart as per Mario's post above, followed his advice and it fixed it.
Jack B 0 Reputation points

2026-06-13T05:11:58.92+00:00

I have read elsewhere that deleting this file can cause serious system issues due to data mismatch which breaks Wifi and other services. Some suggest deleting the entire folder so it is all rebuilt together.
_ wolf 5 Reputation points

2026-06-13T06:24:36.86+00:00

This is a known bug, and all you do is stop the service, delete db-wal in File Explorer and restart your pc. I posted these steps a few days ago: short, easy and effective. resetting the Capability Manager db-wal file will do no harm, just don't delete/reset the main file.
Ken Brindley 5 Reputation points

2026-06-18T15:55:58.16+00:00

This worked great! Thanks. My only comment has to do with the message about the service “stopping or starting please try again later”. This is because the service can take a long time to start when the file is 100+GB. Wait it out (20 minutes in my case) but then you will be able to stop it.
Matt Thomas 5 Reputation points

2026-06-19T17:46:12.4266667+00:00

I followed your instructions exactly but was not able to delete the capabilityaccessmanager.db-wal file because of a file not found error. I know it is there because it shows up on TreeSize and is stopped. What can I do to delete it? It is 276.5 GB now!
Cao, Gewei 0 Reputation points

2026-07-05T20:49:04.77+00:00

Thank you! This helps me a lot. I manually added myself as admin to access the folder, then followed all your steps (from step 2). BTW, the del command I used is "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal"

After deleting this big file, my laptop starts much quicker, and the WIFI activation also sped up a lot!

Answer accepted by question author

Emmanuel Santana 40,195 Independent Advisor

Hello. That file cannot be removed while the system is running normally. Try this to delete it:

Restart your PC while holding Shift, then choose Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart.
Select Safe Mode.
Once in Safe Mode, open File Explorer and if I'm not wrong, go to: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager Otherwise try to delete the file you have identified. But I believe it should be the file CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal.
Delete only that file (leave the main .db file in place).
Restart the computer normally.

After this, Windows should recreate the log file automatically, and it will return to a normal size instead of tens of gigabytes.

Donald Gibson 140 Reputation points

2026-03-10T17:42:02.03+00:00

Thanks for your nice clear directions and I followed them exactly. However, the system will not let me delete the file. Using File Explorer it won't even let me in the Capability Access manager folder. I then tried using TreeSize which let me see the files inside the folder, including the bloated file, but will not allow me to delete the file. Any suggestions on breaking through this security/ This is my personal desktop and I am the Administrator.
Emmanuel Santana 40,195 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-03-11T06:13:40.41+00:00
Thanks for the update. It can be tricky indeed. Normally this file never needs to be deleted, but if it grows to tens of GB like you described, removing the log file will not harm your system.

Try this method instead of File Explorer:

Open Command Prompt as Administrator.

Stop the Capability Access Manager service:

net stop camsvc

Take ownership of the folder:

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

Grant administrator permissions:

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

Delete only the large WAL log file (leave the main .db file in place):

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

Restart the computer.

After this, Windows should recreate the log automatically and it should go back to a normal size (usually only a few MB).
Donald Gibson 140 Reputation points

2026-03-11T17:16:22.92+00:00

You are a hero Emmanuel. Excellent stuff! Clearly you are very skilled in this area and I appreciate the help.

Your instructions went well until I got to the end when it wouldn't allow me to delete because another process was using the file.I restarted in safe mode and made sure CapabilityAccessManager was shutdown then proceeded with your directions. My CapabilityAccessManager*.db-wal file dropped from 66.5 GB to 1.0 MB. After restart all systems seem fine including CapabilityAccessManager.

Thankyou Thankyou.
Emmanuel Santana 40,195 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-03-12T01:03:51.9133333+00:00

Glad I could help, Donald! You're always welcome back to the community, happy to assist anytime.
Erik 36 Reputation points

2026-03-22T18:29:36.6533333+00:00

Indeed, thank you for this solution, Emmanuel.

This worked perfectly, and would have taken me exactly forever and a day to figure out myself.

Hope that others find this answer, and apply it, as this issue can be a machine killer.

Again, thanks much!
Λ H S Ξ N 20 Reputation points

2026-03-26T19:42:20.64+00:00

You can delete the entire folder containing CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal and it will be reconstructed on the next restart. I had to change the folder ownership to myself and boot into safe mode to delete the folder. DO NOT delete just the file as that will break wifi and screen capture. presumably microphone and location as well but I didn't test that.

I originally deleted that single file and it broke these things. I figured out the solution thanks to this post. now I'm going around to all the places I got info from to hopefully help others with the same issue https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHelp/comments/1rwkisj/removed_capabilityaccessmanagerdbwal/

I would greatly appreciate if you could update your post to reflect this information
Ken Hine 10 Reputation points

2026-03-27T02:20:51.0366667+00:00

Emmanuel Santana - Thank you! With my Win11Pro install: I had to reboot into Recovery and choose Command Prompt. Followed the directions and found the C:\ProgramData...\CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal file which I had previously found to have ballooned to 468Gb (512Gb drive). Once deleted and laptop rebooted, the machine ran just fine. My Wifi had previously been taking nearly 5 mins to reconnect after a reboot and this time reconnected immediately upon restart. Thanks!
Emmanuel Santana 40,195 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-03-27T04:32:54.7133333+00:00

@Λ H S Ξ N Did you stop the service before deleting the file? That step is important because the file is actively in use; if it’s removed while the service is running, it can cause things like Wi-Fi or screen capture to break, which sounds like what happened in your case.
Chandan Kumar 10 Reputation points

2026-03-27T11:20:35.8233333+00:00

it worked !

but to my notice again this db file : CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal is growing again at very high speed, 100MB in 1 hour. It needs to stop or clean automatically , it also consume high CPU and heating the laptop
Donald Gibson 140 Reputation points

2026-03-27T16:54:07.36+00:00

I noted the comment that the file begins to grow after being deleted as per Emmanuel Santana's directions. I just checked mine and, yes, it is growing again. 6Gb in about 2 weeks. In y research I was told the normal operation of this service stores data and THEN DUMPS IT AFTER ONE MONTH. I don't know if this is true or not as it hasn't been a month since my deletion of the problem database file. I will check it in 3 or 4 weeks (providing it doesn't become a problem before then. If necessary, I'll just go through Emmanuel's delete instructions again.
Tino 0 Reputation points

2026-03-31T08:42:36.25+00:00

Thank you so much. Mine was sitting at around 120gbs before
Russ Parman 0 Reputation points

2026-04-03T23:55:48.7766667+00:00

After taking ownership of the directory and deleting the bloated .dB, when rebooting to normal mode wifi and screenshot were no functional as reported above. What a major flaw by Microsoft ! Now I'm going to try the full delete scenario .
Don Spencer 5 Reputation points

2026-04-07T12:43:06.59+00:00

Emmanuel Santana, what an elegant solution! this file was strangling my hard drive, now I'm back to having room to operate again.

could those commands be put together as a batch file?
Chris 5 Reputation points

2026-04-17T16:17:39.85+00:00

Thank you Emmanuel for the instructions on how to run the "Open Command Prompt as Administrator". I am completely illiterate when it comes to these computer commands. Your instructions were very clear and most importantly helped me solve my issue. I have my storage back and all my accessories work. Peace and love.
Tim David 10 Reputation points

2026-04-21T00:28:21.5333333+00:00

@Emmanuel Santana Thank you, but should I delete only the .db-wal file or should I delete the whole folder? I'm seeing lots of answers that suggest deleting the whole folder over just the .db-wal file, like here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-ca/answers/questions/5856859/why-is-capability-access-manager-growing-1-9gb-day
Tim David 10 Reputation points

2026-04-21T00:32:23.96+00:00

@Donald Gibson Any updates? Did the files clear on their own after a month?
Emmanuel Santana 40,195 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-04-21T01:22:47.53+00:00

Hello @Tim David , I recommend deleting only the large WAL log file, not the entire folder, as it will rebuild itself. Also, be sure to stop the service beforehand; otherwise, you may encounter the same issues others have experienced, such as Wi-Fi and other functions not working. This method has worked for many.
Erik 36 Reputation points

2026-04-21T12:53:10.3133333+00:00

Update: As I noted previously, this approach worked beautifully, especially the update script.

However, this morning, after a reboot, I found that my machine did not want to let me log in. Why? Because I did not have an internet connection. It told me to try a different method of logging in. However, there is no other method available currently.

And why did I have no internet? Because it turns out that my entire C:\ drive was suddenly backfilled with a massive DB file for this service. No idea how it found a way to populate it, but given that my laptop (which is only four years old, and very much suitable for my work) has a small C: SSD drive and a much larger D: platter drive.

I'm mentioning this because between this error and the need now to be online to log in is creating a deadlock condition which I could easily see forcing a reinstall of windows completely. Something else that we are no longer really allowed to do ourselves.
Arvok snaedal 0 Reputation points

2026-04-21T16:02:45.1066667+00:00

@Emmanuel Santana hello Emmanuel, I've attempted to use the command prompt thing, but when i put in the delete command, it tells me I can't because the file is in use. I cant seem to make it not in use. How do I resolve this?
Donald Gibson 140 Reputation points

2026-04-21T17:59:55.4966667+00:00

Responding to Tim David's question.

I cannot tell if it is deleting data after one month. The file has grown to 9GB since I deleted it but I can't tell if it is still growing or not. I am unable to see any files or data in the WAL log file, even using TreeSize. I'm resigned to deleting the WAL file every now and then when it gets too large. Not a big deal once you know how. Thanks again Emmanuel,

In response to a couple of other comments on here, you have to read Emmanuels directions VERY carefully and there were two consecutive responses from him. Two critical components of his directions are (1) stopping the service before trying to delete and (2) ONLY deleting the WAL file. I'm guessing Erik missed that part.
Tim David 10 Reputation points

2026-04-21T22:09:24.34+00:00

@Donald Gibson Thank you for the update, in response to your issue of TreeSize not seeing all the data, try using WinDirStat. It's much slower but it manually scans every single file. And the reason the file is still growing is because there is a application constantly which in my case was SmartByte that came pre-installed on my dell laptop.

Of course, if the solution of regularly deleting the file works for you, then there is no need to change it.
Tim David 10 Reputation points

2026-04-21T22:29:22.58+00:00

@Emmanuel Santana Just followed your steps, and I cannot thank you enough. Nothing broke at all and my wifi speeds are 10x higher than before (no seriously, I went from 60mb/s to 600mb/s). Hopefully things stay this way and CapabilityAccessManager can handle clearing itself from now on.

And again, Thank you so much :D
Josiah Tung 5 Reputation points

2026-04-24T03:11:32.51+00:00

Thank you Emmanuel, you're a true hero!!
Emanuil Karaivanov 0 Reputation points

2026-04-27T10:03:33.6733333+00:00

Hello, @Donald Gibson

Do you have an update on your situation? Is the file still less than 10 GBs? I deleted about two weeks ago as per @Emmanuel Santana 's instructions, and my laptop took a breath of air! -120 GB of memory on the spot. However, unfortunately, only 2 weeks later, the file has grown almost to 30 GBs again. Is there a permanent fix? From what I understand, other people's file repaired itself well after the first time, mine however is still seemingly growing.
Fyko van der Molen 10 Reputation points

2026-05-02T12:10:08.2166667+00:00

I have 2 laptops both short of C: space and both with CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal of greater than 14GB.

It is reasonable to assume that millions of PC's have this condition right now. It is also reasonable to expect that one or 2 luckless people in every thousand will brick their machines through executing the procedure outlined above.

Since Microsoft could fix this with a dozen or so lines of code is it too much to ask that they do so in a future update? Sometime quite soon perhaps since 256GB is not very much after all, and many Windows users will be bumping the capacity ceiling before their machines wear out.
Mayur SJ 20 Reputation points

2026-05-20T11:07:19.64+00:00

Thank you legend was able to save 80GB
Matt Thomas 5 Reputation points

2026-06-19T17:34:19.9433333+00:00

Emmanuel Santana - I followed your instructions exactly but was not able to delete the capabilityaccessmanager.db-wal file because of a file not found error. I know it is there because it shows up on TreeSize and is stopped. What can I do to delete it? It is 276.5 GB now!
Paul Gibson 10 Reputation points

2026-06-19T20:39:39.6933333+00:00

Matt Thomas. I had the same problem. Solved it by using the full file name, rather than using the wildcard symbol (*), i.e. del "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal"
Matt Thomas 5 Reputation points

2026-06-20T13:25:52.6066667+00:00

@Paul Gibson I tried your suggestion to use the full file name without the * symbol but I still was unable to delete this file. I continued to get the “could not find file” response. All the prior steps that Emmanuel provided worked fine. I also tried to force delete it with the same result . I don’t understand why I can’t delete it.

@Emmanuel Santana do you have any other ideas on how I can delete capabilityaccessmanager.db-wal?
Emmanuel Santana 40,195 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-06-20T16:37:50.7266667+00:00

@Matt Thomas , can you try using WinDirStat to identify the file? I mean if you navigate to the correct folder, I'm curious why the find not found error appears, can you copy the full error?
Matt Thomas 5 Reputation points

2026-06-20T17:13:07.97+00:00

@Emmanuel Santana Here is a screenshot of the “could not find file error”.
Matt Thomas 5 Reputation points

2026-06-20T17:22:24.1466667+00:00

@Emmanuel Santana here is a screenshot of the file location in TreeSize.
Matt Thomas 5 Reputation points

2026-06-20T19:35:26.2833333+00:00

@Emmanuel Santana and @Paul Gibson

Hooray!!! I was finally able to delete capabilityaccessmanager.db-wal. I needed to add a backslash after Capabilityaccessmanager. The full delete command that worked for me was

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

Capabilityaccessmanager.db-wal file size is now only 24.2KB (it was 276.6GB prior to deletion and I only had 187MB free).

Thank you all for your expert assistance to fix this issue and reclaim my hard drive!!!

Matt Thomas
Matt Thomas 5 Reputation points

2026-06-20T19:40:01.4033333+00:00

@Emmanuel Santana and @Paul Gibson

Correction to the text in my comment above.

The delete command that worked for me was

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

Sorry for the confusion.

Matt Thomas
Paul Gibson 10 Reputation points

2026-06-22T06:31:28.06+00:00

@Matt Thomas that's great news. Keep your eye on the file. You'll probably find, like me, that the file starts to bloat again. For me, it still increases on size by around 1gb per day. At least now, we know how to fix the problem, until Microsoft come up with a permanent fix..... that's if they ever do. 🤞🤞
Matt Thomas 5 Reputation points

2026-06-22T12:40:35.46+00:00

@Paul Gibson I turned off location services and that stopped the file from bloating.
Paul Gibson 10 Reputation points

2026-06-22T13:52:16.7566667+00:00

@Matt Thomas I need location services on for some of my business programs,, so that wouldn't work for me.

19 additional answers

Damariobros-3483 0 Reputation points

2026-07-21T07:29:18.35+00:00
A while ago, while cleaning a defunct antivirus off an old laptop, I had to delete a couple remnant DLL files and a remnant empty folder which was owned by TrustedInstaller and that couldn't be deleted or have ownership taken even in Safe Mode. I managed to find a way to delete it though.

What I did:
1. Enable the built-in Administrator account
2. Reboot into Safe Mode with Command Prompt
3. Login as the built-in Administrator account
4. Use Command Prompt to navigate to the file's directory
5. Take ownership of the file with takeown /f <filename>
6. Delete the file
I could not take ownership and delete those files in any other way. Maybe this could work on this database file too.

If taking ownership succeeds but you still can't delete it, you may need to also give Administrator all permissions for the file as well. And if that still doesn't work, open an escalated Command Prompt as TrustedInstaller and try again. If all else fails, boot into an external Windows Recovery Drive and delete the file that way I guess (it ignores the permission structure of drives other than the one WinRE is running in).
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CapabilityAccessManager is devouring my hard drive

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