SQLITE_IOERR_ACCESSERRORTier 2 — Caution⚠️ MEDIUM confidenceI/O error checking file existence/access
Category: I/O ErrorVersions: 3.0+
🔴 Production Risk Error
Medium — database open may fail.
What this means
SQLITE_IOERR_ACCESS (3338) is returned when the VFS xAccess method fails while checking whether a database-related file (journal, WAL, etc.) exists or is accessible.
Why it happens
- 1OS error on stat() or access() syscall for journal/WAL file.
- 2Filesystem error checking file metadata.
How to reproduce
Database open or lock-check operations that probe for sidecar file existence.
trigger — this will ERROR
# stat() failure on -journal or -wal file triggers thissqlite3.OperationalError: disk I/O error
Fix 1
Why this works
Check filesystem health.
Fix 2
Why this works
Ensure the application has read access to the database directory.
Sources
📚 Official docs: https://www.sqlite.org/rescode.html#ioerr_access
🔧 Source ref: sqlite3.h — SQLITE_IOERR_ACCESS = 3338
Confidence assessment
⚠️ MEDIUM confidence
Stable.
See also
⚙️ This error reference was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy. Examples are provided to illustrate common scenarios and may not cover every case. Always test fixes in a development environment before applying to production. Spotted an error? Suggest a correction →