SQLITE_BUSY_RECOVERY
SQLiteWARNINGNotableLockingofficial confidence
Busy: another connection is recovering WAL
Production Risk
Low — transient; resolves once WAL recovery finishes.
What this means
SQLITE_BUSY_RECOVERY (261) is an extended code returned when a database is in WAL mode and another connection is currently performing crash recovery (replaying the WAL). The caller should wait and retry.
Why it happens
- 1Application restarted after a crash; first connection to open the WAL database is performing recovery.
- 2Another process is replaying uncommitted WAL frames after an unclean shutdown.
How to reproduce
WAL-mode database open after an unclean shutdown with concurrent connections.
trigger — this will error
trigger — this will error
import sqlite3, time
for attempt in range(5):
try:
conn = sqlite3.connect('my.db', timeout=5)
conn.execute('SELECT 1')
break
except sqlite3.OperationalError as e:
if 'database is locked' in str(e):
time.sleep(0.5)expected output
Transient; retries succeed once recovery completes.
Fix 1
Fix 2
Version notes
Sources
Content generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy. Found an error? hello@errcodes.dev