Maybe you've never encountered this bug? Its fix is still a relief.
Specializing in everything related—directly or indirectly—to Microsoft operating systems, the Windows Latest website has some good news today, but first, let’s break things down a bit. At the very beginning of the month, Windows Latest reported that Microsoft had acknowledged a bug in Windows 11 that was, to say the least, annoying. This bug affects the available storage space on your machine… reducing it to almost nothing! Windows Latest suggests going to the Windows 11 settings and navigating to the “Storage” section to check that, under “System and Reserved,” the “System Storage” portion isn’t taking up several hundred gigabytes. If that’s the case, you’re likely affected by the bug.
A bug that inflates the space used on the system SSD © Windows Latest
The source of this bug lies with the CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal file. This is a temporary log where Windows 11 stores numerous requests for access to the camera, location, or microphone. In theory, like any good temporary log, it temporarily stores entries before they’re integrated into the main database, CapabilityAccessManager.db, and is purged once the task is complete. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, this purge wasn’t occurring on affected PCs, and CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal could grow to consume several hundred gigabytes in the most extreme cases. This significantly impairs a PC’s proper functioning.
Not content with merely acknowledging the issue, Microsoft first deployed a small workaround before releasing a proper fix via the July 2026 security update, KB5101650. Available on Windows 11 starting with version 24H2, this fix prevents the bug, but several reports indicate that on a PC already affected by the issue, it only prevents the CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal file from growing any further. For now, Microsoft’s patches do not allow the file to return to its normal size. To resolve this, Microsoft offers onlyone solution, described by administrator Max Allen: be careful, however—do not use this technique if you have not encountered the problem.
