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# LOL! Storage Bug on Microsoft Windows 11 Could Eat Up 500 GB Disk Space
- URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/windows-11-cam-bug/
- Published: 2026-07-07T12:54:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-07T16:29:23.000Z
- Description: A Microsoft customer support agent even suggested buying a new hard disk instead of acknowledging the problem.
- Author: Sourav Rudra
- Tags: News

We are used to hearing about Copilot eating storage space on Windows machines, showing up in applications [it has no business in](https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-finally-begins-removing-copilot-from-notepad-on-windows-11-but-the-ai-still-persists?ref=itsfoss.com), and generally being a nuisance for anyone who prefers an AI-free computer.

Now, we have a Windows log file that has been [silently eating up space](https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/07/06/microsoft-admits-a-windows-11-bug-is-eating-up-to-500gb-of-storage-verify-if-you-are-affected/?ref=itsfoss.com) on people's storage drives, with a Microsoft customer support agent even suggesting buying a new hard drive when a user complained about it.

![a complaint by a user named donald gibson that lays out the issue with capability access manager (cam)](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2026/07/ms-forum-question.webp)

## What happened?

The file responsible is `CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal`, a write-ahead log for the database Windows uses to track camera, microphone, and location permission requests. It's supposed to stay a few megabytes and clear itself out after about a month. Instead, it can balloon past 500GB, sitting in a folder Windows won't even let you open to check.

![windirstat being used to analyze the storage consumption of the capabilityaccessmanager on windows 11](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2026/07/windows-11-cam-storage-bug.png)

**Original pic via* [**Agumon\_Hakase*](https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1kwtfcn/comment/mukcobn/?ref=itsfoss.com)**.*

The user who got the hard drive advice was Donald Gibson, who posted about it on [Microsoft's Q&A forum](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5815087/capabilityaccessmanager-is-devouring-my-hard-drive?ref=itsfoss.com) in March 2026\. His *System and Reserved* storage had ballooned to 111GB when it should have sat around 40GB, **all thanks to a single 66.5GB *CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal* file** eating up precious space on his 221GB drive.

When he contacted Microsoft support, the agent had never heard of the bug and had to loop in a supervisor before responding. The result was **a suggestion to buy a new portable hard drive**, and **no help deleting the bloated file** either.

This is not something new that has popped over the past few months, [a Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1kwtfcn/my%5Fharddrive%5Fis%5Fgrowing%5Fslowly%5Fwith%5F500gb%5Fof/?ref=itsfoss.com) from a year ago had **the same file ballooning to 513GB** on someone else's machine, with no folder anywhere to explain where the space went.

## A quiet fix

The [official fix](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/june-23-2026-kb5095093-os-builds-26200-8737-and-26100-8737-preview-0e2a20f2-cf9e-46f8-9f08-e6996220882d?ref=itsfoss.com) didn't show up until June 29, quietly tacked onto the release notes under the "*Change log*" section for a preview update that had already shipped six days earlier.

But not everyone will have this now, as the full rollout is expected with the July 2026 [Patch Tuesday](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch%5FTuesday?ref=itsfoss.com) update, which is well over a year after the first reports started showing up.

The same update also shipped a redesigned Start menu, a new point-in-time restore feature, and support for bigger local AI models, so it is not like Microsoft was short on engineering hours to spare.

---

**Suggested Read 📖:** [*Brave Says This is Not a Privacy Feature*](https://itsfoss.com/news/brave-browser-containers/)

[Brave Says This is Not a Privacy Feature, But Using Containers Has Its PerksBrave Browser 1.92 introduces support for Containers that isolate cookies and site data per tab.![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/icon/android-chrome-512x512-3bccc944-5cc9-4501-bc69-a8f7d53c4293.png)It's FOSSSourav Rudra![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/thumbnail/brave-browser-containers-banner-df64ecf7-cf69-41e9-9099-00cb1730325d.png)](https://itsfoss.com/news/brave-browser-containers/)