How to override an old sqlite3 module with pysqlite3 in django settings.py

settings.py

# ⚠️ USE AT YOUR OWN RISK
# first: pip install pysqlite3-binary
# then in settings.py:

# these three lines swap the stdlib sqlite3 lib with the pysqlite3 package
__import__('pysqlite3')
import sys
sys.modules['sqlite3'] = sys.modules.pop('pysqlite3')

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
    }
}

Django won't work with SQLite < 3.8.3 which is a problem on shared web hosts with Linux systems that have Python built against an older version of SQLite (looking at you, CentOS 7).

Some alternatives are:

• Build a newer SQLite from source and then build Python against that, or...
• Build a newer SQLite from source and set LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point at the updated libraries

Neither of these are ideal for most shared hosting customers who don't want to maintain their own custom builds, so IMO overriding sqlite3 (from the standard library) with pysqlite3 is a decent workaround.

This was helpful. Thank you!

Looks like you solved my problem! Thank you so much!

And for those googling:

I am trying to install Wagtail CMS on the host Webfaction while following the tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_yA25ZmNkA&list=PLMQHMcNi6ocsS8Bfnuy_IDgJ4bHRRrvub.

I was able to use Python's built-in venv to get around the fact that I couldn't use virtualenv or pipenv. However, I got stuck at
$ python3 manage.py migrate

I had the same error as above, where Django was complaining about needing SQLite version 3.8.3 or greater.

Then I followed the advice that support gave me:
"The latest versions of django 3 do not work with the sqlite3 version installed on our servers.
On our django installers we include a statically linked version of a newer sqlite version, as per https://github.com/coleifer/pysqlite3#building-a-statically-linked-library
You can run something similar within your virtualenv or try using the binary version."

... And I created a new environment, pip3 installed pysqlite3-binary, pip3 installed --upgrade django... but still got the same error when trying to migrate.

However, I went to mysite/settings/base.py and popped in the exact 3 lines you posted above, and voilà-- I can manage.py migrate!!

Thanks!

Worked for me, using pipenv in Debian 9.

You saved me !!! I was trying for hours to compile Python 3.10 with a new version of sqlite3 on Centos 7 without luck. Using your solution worked in 5 minutes. Thank you so much !

This was helpful, worked for me as well !

I was getting following error while trying to run chromadb example code using my python3.10.8 venv3.10:
File "~/venv3.10/lib/python3.10/site-packages/chromadb/__init__.py", line 36, in <module> raise RuntimeError( RuntimeError: Your system has an unsupported version of sqlite3. Chroma requires sqlite3 >= 3.35.0.

I executed following steps to resolve this error:

1. Inside my python3.10.8's virtual environment i.e. venv3.10, installed pysqlite3-binary using command: pip install pysqlite3-binary
2. Added these 3 lines in venv3.10/lib/python3.10/site-packages/chromadb/__init__.py at the beginning:

__import__('pysqlite3')
import sys
sys.modules['sqlite3'] = sys.modules.pop('pysqlite3')

And my code worked like a charm!

Can anyone explain about the BASE_DIR mentioned in the DATABASES
DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),

I got an error message -->
'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
NameError: name 'BASE_DIR' is not defined

help to get out of this
im on a streamlit project and im using python3.10

This was helpful, worked for me as well !

I was getting following error while trying to run chromadb example code using my python3.10.8 venv3.10: File "~/venv3.10/lib/python3.10/site-packages/chromadb/__init__.py", line 36, in <module> raise RuntimeError( RuntimeError: Your system has an unsupported version of sqlite3. Chroma requires sqlite3 >= 3.35.0.

I executed following steps to resolve this error:

1. Inside my python3.10.8's virtual environment i.e. venv3.10, installed pysqlite3-binary using command: pip install pysqlite3-binary
2. Added these 3 lines in venv3.10/lib/python3.10/site-packages/chromadb/__init__.py at the beginning:

__import__('pysqlite3')
import sys
sys.modules['sqlite3'] = sys.modules.pop('pysqlite3')

And my code worked like a charm!

Thank you all!
I can also confirm that @medhask fix works for fixing ChromaDb when running in a 3.11 Debian DevContainer!

Sorry guys, after following the steps above. Python complains a new error as below:

File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/chromadb/init.py", line 57, in
if sqlite3.sqlite_version_info < (3, 35, 0):
AttributeError: module 'pysqlite3' has no attribute 'sqlite_version_info'

@hpwahyao hi friends I am also encountering with this error now, has you solved this problem?

I am having the same problem and I think I have tried everything listed here. I'm on a mac with Python 3.8.
I am trying upgrading to Python 3.11 now.
Note that I definitely have the newer version of sqlite3 on my machine. running sqlite3 reports 3.37.0
However, inside my code Chroma finds an older version somehow.

@le052301 @hpwahyao @Vikho @gwc4github if you look at the ChromaDB python client code you'll see that it's already equipped to use pysqlite3 but only if the google.colab module is installed:

https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/blob/747f7c6457fdea29394cdedcfd7cd0bc0541b3eb/chromadb/__init__.py#L50C1-L72C10

You might be able to work around your issue by installing the google-colab and pysqlite-binary Python packages into your environment.

Sorry guys, after following the steps above. Python complains a new error as below:

File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/chromadb/init.py", line 57, in if sqlite3.sqlite_version_info < (3, 35, 0): AttributeError: module 'pysqlite3' has no attribute 'sqlite_version_info'

Sorry guys, after following the steps above. Python complains a new error as below:

File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/chromadb/init.py", line 57, in if sqlite3.sqlite_version_info < (3, 35, 0): AttributeError: module 'pysqlite3' has no attribute 'sqlite_version_info'

1. Go to inti.py file inside the venv3.10/lib/python3.10/site-packages/chromadb/__init__.py.
2. goto line number 61. if sqlite3.sqlite_version_info < (3, 35, 0):
3. and paste these three lines below it and make sure to indent it.

__import__('pysqlite3')
import sys
sys.modules['sqlite3'] = sys.modules.pop('pysqlite3')

4. Now make sure to comment this:

if IN_COLAB:
        # In Colab, hotswap to pysqlite-binary if it's too old
        import subprocess
        import sys

        subprocess.check_call(
            [sys.executable, "-m", "pip", "install", "pysqlite3-binary"]
        )
        __import__("pysqlite3")
        sys.modules["sqlite3"] = sys.modules.pop("pysqlite3")
    else:
        raise RuntimeError(
            "\033[91mYour system has an unsupported version of sqlite3. Chroma requires sqlite3 >= 3.35.0.\033[0m\n"
            "\033[94mPlease visit https://docs.trychroma.com/troubleshooting#sqlite to learn how to upgrade.\033[0m"
        )

It Worked for me when running in python 3.8 ubuntu 20.04

You do not need to modify anything. To bypass the Colab check, you can create an empty folder google/colab in the site packages folder. That way on the Chroma __init__.py when it tries to do the import google.colab check it will pass, and thus replace sqlite3 with pysqlite3

You do not need to modify anything. To bypass the Colab check, you can create an empty folder google/colab in the site packages folder. That way on the Chroma __init__.py when it tries to do the import google.colab check it will pass, and thus replace sqlite3 with pysqlite3

Thanks

Sorry guys, after following the steps above. Python complains a new error as below:
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/chromadb/init.py", line 57, in if sqlite3.sqlite_version_info < (3, 35, 0): AttributeError: module 'pysqlite3' has no attribute 'sqlite_version_info'

Sorry guys, after following the steps above. Python complains a new error as below:
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/chromadb/init.py", line 57, in if sqlite3.sqlite_version_info < (3, 35, 0): AttributeError: module 'pysqlite3' has no attribute 'sqlite_version_info'

1. Go to inti.py file inside the venv3.10/lib/python3.10/site-packages/chromadb/__init__.py.
2. goto line number 61. if sqlite3.sqlite_version_info < (3, 35, 0):
3. and paste these three lines below it and make sure to indent it.

__import__('pysqlite3')
import sys
sys.modules['sqlite3'] = sys.modules.pop('pysqlite3')

4. Now make sure to comment this:

if IN_COLAB:
        # In Colab, hotswap to pysqlite-binary if it's too old
        import subprocess
        import sys

        subprocess.check_call(
            [sys.executable, "-m", "pip", "install", "pysqlite3-binary"]
        )
        __import__("pysqlite3")
        sys.modules["sqlite3"] = sys.modules.pop("pysqlite3")
    else:
        raise RuntimeError(
            "\033[91mYour system has an unsupported version of sqlite3. Chroma requires sqlite3 >= 3.35.0.\033[0m\n"
            "\033[94mPlease visit https://docs.trychroma.com/troubleshooting#sqlite to learn how to upgrade.\033[0m"
        )

It Worked for me when running in python 3.8 ubuntu 20.04

It worked for me also

This did not solve the error for me.

I tried this couple of months ago and worked, however now it doesn't.
the issue is that I'm not even able to install the dependency:

pip install pysqlite3-binary  

ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement pysqlite3-binary (from versions: none)
ERROR: No matching distribution found for pysqlite3-binary

I saw the packages are still with the same name on pypi and they were not removed, but not sure what changed and does not work now.

Any ideas?

Bump, I'm having the same issue as @cmosta0 . Any workaround?

Bump, I'm having the same issue as @cmosta0 . Any workaround?

Hi. In my case, the issue seems to be related the OS. Actually to be able to install using pip, I needed to use --platform on pip install command, otherwise every attempt just returned the same error mentioned above. (I'm using macbook-pro M2)

@cmosta0 Hey what is the pip install command you used to successfully install the binary? Thanks in advance

thinks , u solve my problem, very thinks

@defulmere Thank you very much. This worked for me as well.

This was helpful, worked for me as well !

I was getting following error while trying to run chromadb example code using my python3.10.8 venv3.10: File "~/venv3.10/lib/python3.10/site-packages/chromadb/__init__.py", line 36, in <module> raise RuntimeError( RuntimeError: Your system has an unsupported version of sqlite3. Chroma requires sqlite3 >= 3.35.0.

I executed following steps to resolve this error:

1. Inside my python3.10.8's virtual environment i.e. venv3.10, installed pysqlite3-binary using command: pip install pysqlite3-binary
2. Added these 3 lines in venv3.10/lib/python3.10/site-packages/chromadb/__init__.py at the beginning:

__import__('pysqlite3')
import sys
sys.modules['sqlite3'] = sys.modules.pop('pysqlite3')

worked like magic! Thank you!

I tried this couple of months ago and worked, however now it doesn't. the issue is that I'm not even able to install the dependency:

pip install pysqlite3-binary  

ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement pysqlite3-binary (from versions: none)
ERROR: No matching distribution found for pysqlite3-binary

I saw the packages are still with the same name on pypi and they were not removed, but not sure what changed and does not work now.

Any ideas?

It also happened to me, until I realized it only works on Linux.

See Chroma's documentation