diff --git a/lib/persistence.js b/lib/persistence.js
index 51b5050..8439a81 100755
--- a/lib/persistence.js
+++ b/lib/persistence.js
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
  * * Persistence.persistNewState(newDocs, callback) where newDocs is an array of documents and callback has signature err
  */
 const path = require('path')
-const async = require('async')
+const { callbackify, promisify } = require('util')
 const byline = require('./byline')
 const customUtils = require('./customUtils.js')
 const Index = require('./indexes.js')
@@ -73,9 +73,13 @@ class Persistence {
    * @param {Function} callback Optional callback, signature: err
    */
   persistCachedDatabase (callback = () => {}) {
+    return callbackify(this.persistCachedDatabaseAsync.bind(this))(callback)
+  }
+
+  async persistCachedDatabaseAsync () {
     const lines = []
 
-    if (this.inMemoryOnly) return callback(null)
+    if (this.inMemoryOnly) return
 
     this.db.getAllData().forEach(doc => {
       lines.push(this.afterSerialization(model.serialize(doc)))
@@ -92,11 +96,8 @@ class Persistence {
       }
     })
 
-    storage.crashSafeWriteFileLines(this.filename, lines, err => {
-      if (err) return callback(err)
-      this.db.emit('compaction.done')
-      return callback(null)
-    })
+    await storage.crashSafeWriteFileLinesAsync(this.filename, lines)
+    this.db.emit('compaction.done')
   }
 
   /**
@@ -135,18 +136,22 @@ class Persistence {
    * @param {Function} callback Optional, signature: err
    */
   persistNewState (newDocs, callback = () => {}) {
+    callbackify(this.persistNewStateAsync.bind(this))(newDocs, err => callback(err))
+  }
+
+  async persistNewStateAsync (newDocs) {
     let toPersist = ''
 
     // In-memory only datastore
-    if (this.inMemoryOnly) return callback(null)
+    if (this.inMemoryOnly) return
 
     newDocs.forEach(doc => {
       toPersist += this.afterSerialization(model.serialize(doc)) + '\n'
     })
 
-    if (toPersist.length === 0) return callback(null)
+    if (toPersist.length === 0) return
 
-    storage.appendFile(this.filename, toPersist, 'utf8', err => callback(err))
+    await storage.appendFileAsync(this.filename, toPersist, 'utf8')
   }
 
   /**
@@ -232,6 +237,10 @@ class Persistence {
     })
   }
 
+  async treatRawStreamAsync (rawStream) {
+    return promisify(this.treatRawStream.bind(this))(rawStream)
+  }
+
   /**
    * Load the database
    * 1) Create all indexes
@@ -243,65 +252,42 @@ class Persistence {
    * @param {Function} callback Optional callback, signature: err
    */
   loadDatabase (callback = () => {}) {
+    callbackify(this.loadDatabaseAsync.bind(this))(err => callback(err))
+  }
+
+  async loadDatabaseAsync () {
     this.db.resetIndexes()
 
     // In-memory only datastore
-    if (this.inMemoryOnly) return callback(null)
-
-    async.waterfall([
-      cb => {
-        // eslint-disable-next-line node/handle-callback-err
-        Persistence.ensureDirectoryExists(path.dirname(this.filename), err => {
-          // TODO: handle error
-          // eslint-disable-next-line node/handle-callback-err
-          storage.ensureDatafileIntegrity(this.filename, err => {
-            // TODO: handle error
-            const treatedDataCallback = (err, treatedData) => {
-              if (err) return cb(err)
-
-              // Recreate all indexes in the datafile
-              Object.keys(treatedData.indexes).forEach(key => {
-                this.db.indexes[key] = new Index(treatedData.indexes[key])
-              })
-
-              // Fill cached database (i.e. all indexes) with data
-              try {
-                this.db.resetIndexes(treatedData.data)
-              } catch (e) {
-                this.db.resetIndexes() // Rollback any index which didn't fail
-                return cb(e)
-              }
-
-              this.db.persistence.persistCachedDatabase(cb)
-            }
-
-            if (storage.readFileStream) {
-              // Server side
-              const fileStream = storage.readFileStream(this.filename, { encoding: 'utf8' })
-              this.treatRawStream(fileStream, treatedDataCallback)
-              return
-            }
-
-            // Browser
-            storage.readFile(this.filename, 'utf8', (err, rawData) => {
-              if (err) return cb(err)
-
-              try {
-                const treatedData = this.treatRawData(rawData)
-                treatedDataCallback(null, treatedData)
-              } catch (e) {
-                return cb(e)
-              }
-            })
-          })
-        })
-      }
-    ], err => {
-      if (err) return callback(err)
-
-      this.db.executor.processBuffer()
-      return callback(null)
+    if (this.inMemoryOnly) return
+    await Persistence.ensureDirectoryExistsAsync(path.dirname(this.filename)) // TODO: maybe ignore error
+    await storage.ensureDatafileIntegrityAsync(this.filename) // TODO: maybe ignore error
+
+    let treatedData
+    if (storage.readFileStream) {
+      // Server side
+      const fileStream = storage.readFileStream(this.filename, { encoding: 'utf8' })
+      treatedData = await this.treatRawStreamAsync(fileStream)
+    } else {
+      // Browser
+      const rawData = await storage.readFileAsync(this.filename, 'utf8')
+      treatedData = this.treatRawData(rawData)
+    }
+    // Recreate all indexes in the datafile
+    Object.keys(treatedData.indexes).forEach(key => {
+      this.db.indexes[key] = new Index(treatedData.indexes[key])
     })
+
+    // Fill cached database (i.e. all indexes) with data
+    try {
+      this.db.resetIndexes(treatedData.data)
+    } catch (e) {
+      this.db.resetIndexes() // Rollback any index which didn't fail
+      throw e
+    }
+
+    await this.db.persistence.persistCachedDatabaseAsync()
+    this.db.executor.processBuffer()
   }
 
   /**
@@ -312,6 +298,10 @@ class Persistence {
     storage.mkdir(dir, { recursive: true }, err => { callback(err) })
   }
 
+  static async ensureDirectoryExistsAsync (dir) {
+    await storage.mkdirAsync(dir, { recursive: true })
+  }
+
   /**
    * Return the path the datafile if the given filename is relative to the directory where Node Webkit stores
    * data for this application. Probably the best place to store data
diff --git a/lib/storage.js b/lib/storage.js
index 8e8d2eb..639aba3 100755
--- a/lib/storage.js
+++ b/lib/storage.js
@@ -20,12 +20,16 @@ storage.rename = fs.rename
 storage.renameAsync = fsPromises.rename
 storage.writeFile = fs.writeFile
 storage.writeFileAsync = fsPromises.writeFile
+storage.writeFileStream = fs.createWriteStream
 storage.unlink = fs.unlink
 storage.unlinkAsync = fsPromises.unlink
 storage.appendFile = fs.appendFile
+storage.appendFileAsync = fsPromises.appendFile
 storage.readFile = fs.readFile
+storage.readFileAsync = fsPromises.readFile
 storage.readFileStream = fs.createReadStream
 storage.mkdir = fs.mkdir
+storage.mkdirAsync = fsPromises.mkdir
 
 /**
  * Explicit name ...
@@ -100,7 +104,7 @@ storage.flushToStorageAsync = async (options) => {
  */
 storage.writeFileLines = (filename, lines, callback = () => {}) => {
   try {
-    const stream = fs.createWriteStream(filename)
+    const stream = storage.writeFileStream(filename)
     const readable = Readable.from(lines)
     readable.on('data', (line) => {
       try {