sqlite3.OperationalError: unable to open database file

Question

I get this error when setting up a server in Django. It is sqlite3 which means it should create the .db file but it doesn't seem to be doing so. I've stipulated SQLite as the backend and an absolute file path for where to put it, but no luck.

Is this a bug or am I doing something incorrect? (Was just thinking, is the absolute file path specified differently in Ubuntu?)

Here is the beginning of my settings.py file:

# Django settings for OmniCloud project.

DEBUG = True
TEMPLATE_DEBUG = DEBUG

ADMINS = (
# ('Your Name', '[email protected]'),
)

MANAGERS = ADMINS

DATABASES = {
'default': {
    'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3', # Add 'postgresql_psycopg2', 'postgresql', 'mysql', 'sqlite3' or 'oracle'.
    'NAME': '~/Harold-Server/OmniCloud.db',                      # Or path to database file if using sqlite3.
    'USER': '',                      # Not used with sqlite3.
    'PASSWORD': '',                  # Not used with sqlite3.
    'HOST': '',                      # Set to empty string for localhost. Not used with sqlite3.
    'PORT': '',                      # Set to empty string for default. Not used with sqlite3.
}
}

akki · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-02 13:23:08Z

89

Django NewbieMistakes

PROBLEM You're using SQLite3, your DATABASE_NAME is set to the database file's full path, the database file is writeable by Apache, but you still get the above error.

SOLUTION Make sure Apache can also write to the parent directory of the database. SQLite needs to be able to write to this directory.

Make sure each folder of your database file's full path does not start with number, eg. /www/4myweb/db (observed on Windows 2000).

If DATABASE_NAME is set to something like '/Users/yourname/Sites/mydjangoproject/db/db', make sure you've created the 'db' directory first.

Make sure your /tmp directory is world-writable (an unlikely cause as other thing on your system will also not work). ls /tmp -ald should produce drwxrwxrwt ....

Make sure the path to the database specified in settings.py is a full path.

Also make sure the file is present where you expect it to be.

edited Apr 2, 2014 at 13:23

akki

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answered Oct 6, 2011 at 5:37

John

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4 Comments

Chris Over a year ago

How would I change the permissions of Apache via command line in Linux?

John Over a year ago

You don't change the permissions of apache you change the permissions of the file and folder so that Apache can read and write in the correct places. Here is a guide to chmod catcode.com/teachmod which is how you change permissions in linux. though it should just be chmod +rw folder_name

lionello Over a year ago

chmod o+w . in the DB file's folder fixed this for me.

blue_chip Over a year ago

From the same website, if you're on Windows for anybody else who might need it: "If you working on windows make also sure that you have the path to the db directory written with double backlashes (using os.path methods are recommended) 'C:\\django\\sqlite\\django.db' or r'C:\django\sqlite\django.db' Make sure there is no special charcaters in the path like "éè" or "(". If you are using Windows and this message appears intermittently make sure that your security software (Anti-malware) are not opening (and locking) your database file to check for malware presence."

chhantyal · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-19 10:15:17Z

21

I faced exactly same issue. Here is my setting which worked.

'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3', 
'NAME': '/home/path/to/your/db/data.sqlite3'

Other setting in case of sqlite3 will be same/default.
And you need to create data.sqlite3.

edited Feb 19, 2013 at 10:15

answered Jun 28, 2012 at 10:37

chhantyal

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Comments

Daniel Roseman · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-06 08:11:35Z

12

You haven't specified the absolute path - you've used a shortcut , ~, which might not work in this context. Use /home/yourusername/Harold-Server/OmniCloud.db instead.

answered Oct 6, 2011 at 8:11

Daniel Roseman

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3 Comments

Chris Over a year ago

would username be the name of the server or, since I'm logged in as root, root?

Daniel Roseman Over a year ago

Don't log in as root, ever. Set up a user for the Django site, or use the Apache user (usually www-data).

Chris Over a year ago

Okay I am accessing the linode server via ssh and added a user named Ned. So I need to pull the repo from github and then run it on Ned?

Chris McFarland · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-08 23:38:48Z

8

You need to use full path instead of ~/.

In your case, something like /home/harold/Harold-Server/OmniCloud.db.

edited Aug 8, 2013 at 23:38

Chris McFarland

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answered Aug 8, 2013 at 23:18

Stanislav Bondarenko

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1 Comment

dank Over a year ago

Spot on. The Tildie "~" is a bash shortcut which is not recognized inside the application. Thanks for the fix! :)

bprasanna · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-26 19:05:04Z

7

In my case the sqlite db file db.sqlite3 was stored in the DocumentRoot of apache. So, even after setting the following permissions it didn't work:

sudo chown www-data:www-data /path/to/db-folder
sudo chown www-data:www-data /path/to/db-folder/sqlite-db.db

Finally when i moved db.sqlite3 to a newly created folder dbfolder under DocumentRoot and gave the above permissions, and it worked.

answered Apr 26, 2015 at 19:05

bprasanna

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Comments

rick debbout · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-26 04:15:16Z

2

I had this problem serving with Apache and found that using the absolute path to the sqlite3 db in my .env //// as opposed to using the relative path /// fixed the problem. All of the permissions and ownership mentioned above are necessary as well.

answered Dec 26, 2020 at 4:15

rick debbout

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Comments

Yogendra Sharma · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-30 01:30:08Z

1

use this type it works for me . windows 7 with python 2.7 and django 1.5

'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
'NAME': 'C:\\tool\\mysite\\data.db',

hope its works...

answered May 30, 2013 at 1:30

Yogendra Sharma

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Comments

Антон Горыня · Accepted Answer · 2023-08-09 12:46:31Z

1

In the same case, the problem was in empty write permissions.

sudo chmod -R o+w ./dir/

answered Aug 9, 2023 at 12:46

Антон Горыня

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1 Comment

Community Over a year ago

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