I'm using System.Data.SQLite provider in an ASP.NET application (framework 4.0). The issue I'm running into is that when I INSERT something in a table in the SQLite database, the database gets locked and the lock isn't being released even after the connection is disposed.

When trying to access the file, the error is: "The process cannot access the file 'catalog.sqlite' because it is being used by another process."

My code is pretty straightforward, I open the connection, read some data from a SQLServer database, insert that data into SQLite (through SQLiteDataAdapter) and then close the connection and dispose everything just to be on the safe side. But still, I get that error when I try to zip the file after it's being populated with the data.

I've read all kind of suggestions here on StackOverflow but none of them has helped solving the problem (turning off the antivirus, changing the transaction model, waiting a few seconds before zipping up the file, wrapping all the insert calls into a transaction, etc.. but none has helped solving this issue.

Maybe there's something specific to ASP.NET (multithreading being the issue? Even though I'm testing it on a development machine where there's only one call to that function and no concurrency?)

As a side note, I tried avoiding DataTable and SQLiteDataAdapter and using only SQLiteCommand directly and that way it works a charm. Of course I can keep building my queries as strings instead of using the data adapters, but I kind of find it a bit awkward when there's a framework built to do that.

    I had the same problem using the datasets/tableadapters generated with the designer shipped with System.Data.Sqlite.dll version 1.0.82.0 -- after closing the connection we were unable to read the database file using System.IO.FileStream. I was disposing correctly both connection and tableadapters and I was not using connection pooling.

    According to my first searches (for example this and this thread) that seemed a problem in the library itself -- either objects not correctly released and/or pooling issues (which I don't use).

    After reading your question I tried to replicate the problem using only SQLiteCommand objects and I found that the problem arises when you don't dispose them. Update 2012-11-27 19:37 UTC: this is further confirmed by this ticket for System.Data.SQLite, in which a developer explains that "allSQLiteCommand and SQLiteDataReader objects associated with the connection [should be] properly disposed".

    I then turned back on the generated TableAdapters and I saw that there was no implementation of the Dispose method -- so in fact the created commands were not disposed. I implemented it, taking care of disposing all the commands, and I have got no problem.

    Here's the code in C#, hope this helps. Please note that the code is converted from the original in Visual Basic, so expect some conversion errors.

    //In Table Adapter    
    protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
    {
       base.Dispose(disposing);
    
        Common.DisposeTableAdapter(disposing, _adapter, _commandCollection);
    }
    
    public static class Common
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Disposes a TableAdapter generated by SQLite Designer
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="disposing"></param>
        /// <param name="adapter"></param>
        /// <param name="commandCollection"></param>
        /// <remarks>You must dispose all the command,
        /// otherwise the file remains locked and cannot be accessed
        /// (for example, for reading or deletion)</remarks>
        public static void DisposeTableAdapter(
            bool disposing,
            System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteDataAdapter adapter,
            IEnumerable<System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteCommand> commandCollection)
        {
            if (disposing) {
                DisposeSQLiteTableAdapter(adapter);
    
                foreach (object currentCommand_loopVariable in commandCollection)
                {
                    currentCommand = currentCommand_loopVariable;
                    currentCommand.Dispose();
                }
            }
        }
    
        public static void DisposeSQLiteTableAdapter(
                System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteDataAdapter adapter)
        {
            if (adapter != null) {
                DisposeSQLiteTableAdapterCommands(adapter);
    
                adapter.Dispose();
            }
        }
    
        public static void DisposeSQLiteTableAdapterCommands(
                System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteDataAdapter adapter)
        {
            foreach (object currentCommand_loopVariable in {
                adapter.UpdateCommand,
                adapter.InsertCommand,
                adapter.DeleteCommand,
                adapter.SelectCommand})
            {
                currentCommand = currentCommand_loopVariable;
                if (currentCommand != null) {
                    currentCommand.Dispose();
                }
            }
        }
    }

    Update 2013-07-05 17:36 UTC gorogm's answer highlights two important things:

    • according to the changelog on the official site of System.Data.SQLite, starting from version 1.0.84.0 the above code should not be needed, since the library takes care of this. I haven't tested this, but in the worst case you only need this snippet:

      //In Table Adapter    
      protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
      {
        base.Dispose(disposing);
      
        this.Adapter.Dispose();
      }
    • about the implementation of the Dispose call of the TableAdapter: it is is better to put this in a partial class, so that a dataset regeneration does not affected this code (and any additional code you may need to add).

      I have the same problem. My scenario was after getting the data inside SQLite Database file I want to delete that file but it always throw an error "...using by other process". Even I dispose the SqliteConnection or SqliteCommand the error still occur. I've fixed the error by calling GC.Collect().

      Code snippet

      public void DisposeSQLite()
      {
          SQLiteConnection.Dispose();
          SQLiteCommand.Dispose();
      
          GC.Collect();
      }

      Hope this help.

        In my case I was creating SQLiteCommand objects without explicitly disposing them.

        var command = connection.CreateCommand();
        command.CommandText = commandText;
        value = command.ExecuteScalar();

        I wrapped my command in a using statement and it fixed my issue.

        static public class SqliteExtensions
        {
            public static object ExecuteScalar(this SQLiteConnection connection, string commandText)
            {
                // Added using
                using (var command = connection.CreateCommand())
                {
                    command.CommandText = commandText;
                    return command.ExecuteScalar();
                }
            }
        }

        Then you can use it like this

        connection.ExecuteScalar(commandText);

          The following worked for me:  MySQLiteConnection.Close(); SQLite.SQLiteConnection.ClearAllPools()

          I found edymtt's answer right about blaming TableAdapters / Datasets, but instead of modifying the every time re-generated TableAdapter codefile, I found an other solution: to manually call .Dispose on the TableAdapter's child elements. (In .NET 4.5, latest SQLite 1.0.86)

          using (var db = new testDataSet())
          {
              using (testDataSetTableAdapters.UsersTableAdapter t = new testDataSetTableAdapters.UsersTableAdapter())
              {
                  t.Fill(db.Users);
                  //One of the following two is enough
                  t.Connection.Dispose(); //THIS OR
                  t.Adapter.Dispose();    //THIS LINE MAKES THE DB FREE
              }
              Console.WriteLine((from x in db.Users select x.Username).Count());
          }

            In most cases the problem will arise if you don't dispose your readers and commands properly. There is a scenario in which commands and readers will not dispose properly.

            Scenario 1: In case you are running a boolean function. before a result is reached the code in the finally block will not excecute. This is a big problem if you are going to be evaluating the results of function isDataExists while executing code if it suits the result i.e

                if(isDataExists){
                    // execute some code
                }

            The function being evaluated

                public bool isDataExists(string sql)
                {
                    try
                    {
                        OpenConnection();
                        SQLiteCommand cmd = new SQLiteCommand(sql, connection);
                        reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();
                        if (reader != null && reader.Read())
                        {
                            return true;
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            return false;
                        }
                    }
                    catch (Exception expMsg)
                    {
                        //Exception
                    }
                    finally
                    {
                        if (reader != null)
                        {
                            reader.Dispose();
                        }
                        CloseConnection();
                    }
                    return true;
                }

            Solution: Dispose your reader and command inside the try block as follows

                        OpenConnection();
                        SQLiteCommand cmd = new SQLiteCommand(sql, connection);
                        reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();
                        if (reader != null && reader.Read())
                        {
                            cmd.Dispose();
                            CloseConnection();
                            return true;
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            cmd.Dispose();
                            CloseConnection();
                            return false;
                        }

            Finally dispose the reader and command just in case some thing went wrong

                    finally
                    {
                        if (reader != null)
                        {
                            reader.Dispose();
                        }
                        CloseConnection();
                    }

              As said earlier SQLite objects must be destroyed. However, there is a strange behavior: connection must be open during a call Dispose on commands. For example:

              using(var connection = new SqliteConnection("source.db"))
              {
                  connection.Open();
                  using(var command = connection.CreateCommand("select..."))
                  {
                      command.Execute...
                  }
              }

              works fine, but:

              using(var connection = new SqliteConnection("source.db"))
              {
                  connection.Open();
                  using(var command = connection.CreateCommand("select..."))
                  {
                      command.Execute...
                      connection.Close();
                  }
              }

              gives the same file lock

              This was one of the top google results I had found when I ran into this error. However, none of the responses helped me so after more searching around and googling I came up with this code that works from some of the code from http://www.tsjensen.com/blog/post/2012/11/10/SQLite-on-Visual-Studio-with-NuGet-and-Easy-Instructions.aspx

              However, I did not have to use the NuGet at all. What my program does is downloads a db file from a server every time it is opened. Then if a user updates that db, it will be uploaded for everyone to get the next time they open the same program. I was getting the error that the file was in use after updating the local file and trying to upload it to our SharePoint. Now it works fine.

              Public Function sqLiteGetDataTable(sql As String) As DataTable
                  Dim dt As New DataTable()
                  Using cnn = New SQLiteConnection(dbConnection)
                      cnn.Open()
                      Using cmd As SQLiteCommand = cnn.CreateCommand()
                          cmd.CommandText = sql
                          Using reader As System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteDataReader = cmd.ExecuteReader()
                              dt.Load(reader)
                              reader.Dispose()
                          End Using
                          cmd.Dispose()
                      End Using
                      If cnn.State <> System.Data.ConnectionState.Closed Then
                          cnn.Close()
                      End If
                      cnn.Dispose()
                  End Using
                  Return dt
              End Function

              Ensuring that any IDisposable (e.g., SQLiteConnection, SQLiteCommand, etc) is properly disposed of solves this problem. I should re-iterate that one must be using "using" as a habit to ensure proper disposing of disposable resources.

              I had the same problem and it was only fixed by disposing the DbCommand in the using statement, but with Pooling = true my problem was fixed!!

                              SQLiteConnectionStringBuilder builder = new SQLiteConnectionStringBuilder
                              {
                                  Pooling = true
                              };