diff --git a/libraries/src/Application/CMSApplication.php b/libraries/src/Application/CMSApplication.php
index e590ce5fd85aa..a6b4e700ec801 100644
--- a/libraries/src/Application/CMSApplication.php
+++ b/libraries/src/Application/CMSApplication.php
@@ -150,6 +150,42 @@ public function afterSessionStart()
 			$session->set('registry', new Registry);
 			$session->set('user', new \JUser);
 		}
+
+		// Get the session handler from the configuration.
+		$handler = $this->get('session_handler', 'none');
+
+		$time = time();
+
+		// If the database session handler is not in use and the current time is a divisor of 5, purge session metadata after the response is sent
+		if ($handler !== 'database' && $time % 5 === 0)
+		{
+			$this->registerEvent(
+				'onAfterResponse',
+				function () use ($session, $time)
+				{
+					// TODO: At some point we need to get away from having session data always in the db.
+					$db = \JFactory::getDbo();
+
+					$query = $db->getQuery(true)
+						->delete($db->quoteName('#__session'))
+						->where($db->quoteName('time') . ' < ' . $db->quote((int) ($time - $session->getExpire())));
+
+					$db->setQuery($query);
+
+					try
+					{
+						$db->execute();
+					}
+					catch (\JDatabaseExceptionExecuting $exception)
+					{
+						/*
+						 * The database API logs errors on failures so we don't need to add any error handling mechanisms here.
+						 * Since garbage collection does not result in a fatal error when run in the session API, we don't allow it here either.
+						 */
+					}
+				}
+			);
+		}
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -806,29 +842,16 @@ public function loadSession(\JSession $session = null)
 
 		$session->initialise($this->input, $this->dispatcher);
 
-		// TODO: At some point we need to get away from having session data always in the db.
-		$db = \JFactory::getDbo();
-
-		// Remove expired sessions from the database.
-		$time = time();
-
-		if ($time % 2)
-		{
-			// The modulus introduces a little entropy, making the flushing less accurate
-			// but fires the query less than half the time.
-			$query = $db->getQuery(true)
-				->delete($db->quoteName('#__session'))
-				->where($db->quoteName('time') . ' < ' . $db->quote((int) ($time - $session->getExpire())));
-
-			$db->setQuery($query);
-			$db->execute();
-		}
-
 		// Get the session handler from the configuration.
 		$handler = $this->get('session_handler', 'none');
 
-		if (($handler !== 'database' && ($time % 2 || $session->isNew()))
-			|| ($handler === 'database' && $session->isNew()))
+		/*
+		 * Check for extra session metadata when:
+		 *
+		 * 1) The database handler is in use and the session is new
+		 * 2) The database handler is not in use and the time is an even numbered second or the session is new
+		 */
+		if (($handler !== 'database' && (time() % 2 || $session->isNew())) || ($handler === 'database' && $session->isNew()))
 		{
 			$this->checkSession();
 		}