Windows 11's Privacy Log File Ate 513 GB of One Reddit User's C: Drive — Microsoft Sat on the Bug for Four Months
TL;DR
Microsoft admitted on June 29 that Windows 11's privacy log file CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal has ballooned since February — one Reddit user lost 513 GB to a single file. KB5095093 patches it.
Microsoft quietly admitted a bug on June 29 in the release notes for the KB5095093 optional update: the Windows 11 privacy-access log file CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal has been silently ballooning since February, with the worst reported case eating 513 GB off a single user's C: drive. The file is supposed to sit at 1–4 MB.
The 513 GB case surfaced on r/techsupport. The user pulled apart their C: drive and found the page file plus hibernation file added up to just 29 GB — the rest was almost all one runaway db-wal file. A Feedback Hub report clocked 200 GB. Other Reddit comments cite 70 GB, 110 GB, and 200 GB.
The file lives at
Microsoft took four months — February to June 29 — to acknowledge it. KB5095093's release note is one line: "improves disk space usage for the CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal file." No post-mortem, no scope estimate, no communication to users whose drives got emptied. The same fix ships automatically in the July Patch Tuesday.
How to check: Settings → Storage → Show more categories → System & reserved, look for "System files" running into the hundreds of GB. Or run
A file whose entire job is logging "which app touched your microphone" turned around and ate a user's 512 GB SSD down to the red line.
via Windows Latest / TechSpot / Neowin / Appinn
The 513 GB case surfaced on r/techsupport. The user pulled apart their C: drive and found the page file plus hibernation file added up to just 29 GB — the rest was almost all one runaway db-wal file. A Feedback Hub report clocked 200 GB. Other Reddit comments cite 70 GB, 110 GB, and 200 GB.
The file lives at
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal. It is the SQLite Write-Ahead Log for camera, microphone, location and screen-capture access records. Normally the WAL merges back into the main DB; a Windows 11 update in February or March broke the merge path, so the log grew until it hit the SSD ceiling.Microsoft took four months — February to June 29 — to acknowledge it. KB5095093's release note is one line: "improves disk space usage for the CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal file." No post-mortem, no scope estimate, no communication to users whose drives got emptied. The same fix ships automatically in the July Patch Tuesday.
How to check: Settings → Storage → Show more categories → System & reserved, look for "System files" running into the hundreds of GB. Or run
robocopy "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager" "%TEMP%\CAMCheck" /L /B /R:0 /W:0 /BYTES /NP.A file whose entire job is logging "which app touched your microphone" turned around and ate a user's 512 GB SSD down to the red line.
via Windows Latest / TechSpot / Neowin / Appinn
