"manage.py runserver" gives error: django.db.utils.OperationalError: unable to open database file

Question

I'm getting this error running manage.py runserver:

$ python manage.py runserver
...
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Django-1.10.1-py2.7.egg/django/db/backends/sqlite3/base.py", line 209, in get_new_connection
    conn = Database.connect(**conn_params)
django.db.utils.OperationalError: unable to open database file

settings.py:

    DATABASES = {
        'default': dj_database_url.config(
            default="sqlite:///{}".format(
                os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db/db.sqlite3')
            )
        )
    }

Marcelo · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-22 20:23:08Z

11

Suffering for a while from the same issue and I believe I have found a solution, finally!

sudo python manage.py runserver

and that did the trick for me.

My permissions were telling me that everything is how it should be. Regardless, I still had to type in sudo at the beginning of the command at the terminal.

answered Jan 22, 2017 at 20:23

Marcelo

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2 Comments

Deepa MG Over a year ago

This can be done only in development not helpful in production when Django is deployed on apache server with mod_wsgi

Yaroslav Nikitenko Over a year ago

Didn't help at all. My user was able to access the database. Better check the permissions than use root account for that.

vanadium23 · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-04 13:57:21Z

8

Basically there are two answers, either user which running server don't have rights to open database file. You can try to fix this by:

sudo chown $(whoami):$(whoami) /path/to/dir/db/db.sqlite3

Or you don't have this file, you can create it by applying migrate command:

./manage.py migrate

answered Dec 4, 2016 at 13:57

vanadium23

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1 Comment

vanadium23 Over a year ago

Can you check that os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db/db.sqlite3'), and you path is equal?

GitOnion · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-02 18:50:00Z

4

I had the same problem, just solved it. Make sure www-data (or whatever daemon running your web server) has access to both the db.sqlite3 file, and also the path to it. So:

sudo chown :www-data <project_folder>/
sudo chown :www-data <project_folder>/db.sqlite3
sudo chmod 664 <project_folder>/db.sqlite3

answered Apr 2, 2017 at 18:50

GitOnion

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Comments

thierno · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-24 21:11:02Z

4

Just remove the first db in your settings.py file.

You have os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db/db.sqlite3') if you remove the first db, you'll have os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3')

Your database settings will be

DATABASES = {
    'default': dj_database_url.config(
        default="sqlite:///{}".format(
            os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3')
        )
    )
}

answered Feb 24, 2018 at 21:11

thierno

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Comments

infected-mushroom · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-20 18:52:54Z

2

TO ANY WINDOWS USERS:

I got the same error while creating my first django project. I couldn't use sudo on windows, so the command python manage.py runserver only worked when I ran my terminal as administrator.

edited Sep 20, 2019 at 18:52

answered Sep 20, 2019 at 11:45

infected-mushroom

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1 Comment

Fathy Over a year ago

not working for me

Sam · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-30 01:36:47Z

1

For me, the issue was that I had two settings files; one for production and one for development. In my manage.py, I'd specified the deployment settings file and forgotten to add manage.py to my .gitignore, so when I ran the project locally it failed when trying to find the production database.

answered Nov 30, 2018 at 1:36

Sam

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Comments

Frank · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-27 14:11:49Z

1

If you are experiencing this problem on AWS EC2 node and using apache, to solve the problem I had to:

chown -R apache:apache project_folder

answered May 27, 2020 at 14:11

Frank

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Comments

Rob Bednark · Accepted Answer · 2024-07-13 21:36:47Z

1

I have a similar problem. Running as root fixes it:

sudo python3 manage.py runserver

edited Jul 13, 2024 at 21:36

Rob Bednark

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answered Mar 3, 2021 at 17:24

Happy Patel

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Comments

Barnabas · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-16 17:29:11Z

0

For many users(like myself), who might have this error while using another DB engine but have set the default engine via your env variable invocation as sqllite3, you might want to either remove that default value or check that the env variable you're checking is named the same way in your .env file.

Rookie mistake but well,

answered Dec 16, 2021 at 17:29

Barnabas

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Alireza · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-25 19:30:07Z

0

The issue in my case was to use double forward slash instead of triple forward slash:

I had to change:

os.environ.get("DATABASE_URL", f"sqlite://{BASE_DIR}/db.sqlite3")

To:

os.environ.get("DATABASE_URL", f"sqlite:///{BASE_DIR}/db.sqlite3")

answered Jun 25, 2022 at 19:30

Alireza

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Comments

CodeRed · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-15 17:02:50Z

0

You do not need sudo for this. The solution is to create a 'db' folder in your project root directory before running the migrate command. Apparently, 'manage.py' does not have permission to create folders on your machine, so create the folder and everything should work.

answered Nov 15, 2023 at 17:02

CodeRed

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Comments

Nae · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-18 20:07:42Z

-1

@whinytween96 : I have seen this problem occur more when sudo is used to run some commands and not for others. You need to be consistent with the usage of sudo to fix this problem. I had the DB issue and I fixed it by running the command again with sudo prefixed.

i.e.

sudo python manage.py runserver
sudo python manage.py makemigrations
sudo python manage.py migrate

fixed the problem for me.

edited Jan 18, 2018 at 20:07

Nae

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answered Jan 18, 2018 at 17:53

Sudhir Menon

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Meet Bhut · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-11 03:41:45Z

-1

check folder name, you store database file

answered Mar 11, 2022 at 3:41

Meet Bhut

1

1 Comment

Community Over a year ago

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