diff --git a/src/db.rs b/src/db.rs
index 54e0211..6f8f961 100644
--- a/src/db.rs
+++ b/src/db.rs
@@ -364,6 +364,9 @@ pub async fn db_writer(
 
 /// Persist an event to the database, returning rows added.
 pub fn write_event(conn: &mut PooledConnection, e: &Event) -> Result<usize> {
+    // enable auto vacuum
+    conn.execute_batch("pragma auto_vacuum = FULL")?;
+
     // start transaction
     let tx = conn.transaction()?;
     // get relevant fields from event and convert to blobs.
diff --git a/src/schema.rs b/src/schema.rs
index ced6ec1..5835ebb 100644
--- a/src/schema.rs
+++ b/src/schema.rs
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ use tracing::{debug, error, info};
 /// Startup DB Pragmas
 pub const STARTUP_SQL: &str = r##"
 PRAGMA main.synchronous = NORMAL;
-PRAGMA auto_vacuum = FULL;
 PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON;
 PRAGMA journal_size_limit = 32768;
 pragma mmap_size = 17179869184; -- cap mmap at 16GB
@@ -28,7 +27,7 @@ const INIT_SQL: &str = formatcp!(
     r##"
 -- Database settings
 PRAGMA encoding = "UTF-8";
-PRAGMA journal_mode=WAL;
+PRAGMA journal_mode = WAL;
 PRAGMA auto_vacuum = FULL;
 PRAGMA main.synchronous=NORMAL;
 PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON;