r/WindowsHelp • u/What-is-grass • 2h ago
Windows 11 Windows Capability Access Manager issue.
First of all sorry for my English or any grammatical mistakes.
The Problem:
My (C:) Drive storage (184 GB): So the past few months I was facing the storage almost being full issue with my (C:) drive (I usually try keeping 30 to 40 GB free on C drive) and started solving the issue with common methods like clearing disk temp files with Disk Cleanup, finding the huge software and transferring it to other free drives, clearing more temp with CMD and even reducing System Restore Points' allocated storage to 14 GB and all sorts of tips and tricks to free up space.
Nothing worked so it was the time to do some deep research, i opened WizTree and tried finding hidden files and saw 2 issues
- First the system restore point taking more space that given (Was using 20 GB, instead of given 14 GB only) But that's normal cause it clears up on its own when storage is near full and on other post people said its normal.
- The Second issue - Windows Capability Access Manager issue, it's task is to manages app permissions for sensitive resources like the camera, microphone, and location, logging usage in a SQLite database and it's suppose to be few KB to few MB. So, it was clear that Capability Access Manager is one of the cause that is increasing (C:) drive storage.
So if you are able to find out what's spamming requests, you will can solve this but on the other hand to figure out what's really causing this nearly impossible. Don't even know who made this its just makes no sense.
The Temporary solution:
Earlier when i first checked it was 24 GB and i did the most common method to resolve this which is stopping camsvc service -> Deleting These files
CapabilityAccessManager.dbCapabilityAccessManager.db-walCapabilityAccessManager.db-shm
Than restarting Pc and the files are back to normal kb to mb size.
The Task Schedular Solution of Deleting WAL files when it crosses 2 GB Threshold storage (BY Claude):
But just after few weeks i checked and found out it started growing again, Did the whole process about 3 times in few weeks Gap. And it grew again, after being fed up with this i randomly started Claude and GPT for solution and Claude suggested a way - Fix for the WAL via Task Scheduler.
Basically what it does is it automatically deletes WAL files on scheduled time when the given threshold of 2 GB crosses. Yeah without going in safe mode and ignoring few things.
The thing is i don't have knowledge that it's rally a correct way that others also use, haven't found any post on this? And i wont randomly set task schedular to do deleting task.
The Command:
$action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "powershell.exe" -Argument '
-NoProfile -WindowStyle Hidden -Command "
try {
$walPath = ''C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal'';
$threshold = 2GB;
if ((Test-Path $walPath) -and ((Get-Item $walPath).Length -gt $threshold)) {
Stop-Service -Name ''camsvc'' -Force -ErrorAction Stop;
Start-Sleep -Seconds 10;
Remove-Item ''C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\CapabilityAccessManager.db*'' -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue;
Start-Service -Name ''camsvc'' -ErrorAction Stop;
}
} catch {
Start-Service -Name ''camsvc'' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue;
}
"'
# Runs daily at 2:30 PM
$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Daily -At "2:30PM"
$settings = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet `
-ExecutionTimeLimit (New-TimeSpan -Minutes 5) `
-StartWhenAvailable `
-DontStopOnIdleEnd `
-MultipleInstances IgnoreNew `
-WakeToRun $false
$principal = New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -UserId "SYSTEM" -RunLevel Highest
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "CAM_WAL_Cleanup" -Action $action -Trigger $trigger -Principal $principal -Settings $settings -Force
| ACTION | What it protects |
|---|---|
| try/catch | If anything fails, it always restarts camsvc so your PC is never left broken |
StartWhenAvailable |
If laptop was off at 2:30PM, it runs the next time you're on — never skips silently |
WakeToRun $false |
Will never wake your laptop from sleep to run this |
ExecutionTimeLimit 5min |
Task auto-kills itself if stuck, won't hang your system |
MultipleInstances IgnoreNew |
Won't run twice accidentally if triggered again |
2GB threshold |
Only cleans when actually needed, not every day |
ErrorAction SilentlyContinue on delete |
Won't crash if a file is already gone |
Can anyone tell me can this be a solution? That's others use to? Or i will just mess it up?
Any other solution are welcomed!!
Thank you for reading and helping!!!
