pgref.dev/sqlite/errors/SQLITE_IOERR_UNLOCK
SQLITE_IOERR_UNLOCKERRORTier 2 — Caution⚠️ MEDIUM confidence

I/O error releasing file lock

Category: I/O ErrorVersions: 3.0+

🔴 Production Risk Error

High — other connections may remain blocked on the lock.

What this means

SQLITE_IOERR_UNLOCK (2058) is returned when the OS reports an error while SQLite tries to release (unlock) a file lock after completing a transaction.

Why it happens

  1. 1OS error on fcntl(F_UNLCK) during lock release.
  2. 2File descriptor invalidated before unlock (e.g., file closed by signal handler).

How to reproduce

Post-commit lock release failure.

trigger — this will ERROR
# SQLITE_IOERR_UNLOCK surfaces as disk I/O error after COMMIT
sqlite3.DatabaseError: disk I/O error

Fix 1

Why this works

Close and reopen the database connection to clear the lock state.

Fix 2

Why this works

Check for OS-level errors in system logs.

Sources

📚 Official docs: https://www.sqlite.org/rescode.html#ioerr_unlock

🔧 Source ref: sqlite3.h — SQLITE_IOERR_UNLOCK = 2058

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 →