SQLITE_IOERR_ROLLBACK_ATOMICFATALTier 3 — Handle with care⚠️ MEDIUM confidenceI/O error rolling back atomic write
Category: I/O ErrorVersions: 3.25.0+
🔴 Production Risk Error
Critical — database state is unknown.
What this means
SQLITE_IOERR_ROLLBACK_ATOMIC (7946) is returned when the VFS cannot roll back a failed atomic write. The database state is unknown and may require recovery or restore.
Why it happens
- 1Hardware failure during atomic rollback.
- 2VFS error aborting the atomic write batch.
How to reproduce
ROLLBACK on a database using atomic write VFS after another error.
trigger — this will ERROR
# Occurs when ROLLBACK itself fails on an atomic-write VFS
# → indeterminate database statesqlite3.DatabaseError: disk I/O error
Fix 1
Why this works
Check disk hardware immediately.
Fix 2
Why this works
Treat the database as suspect — run integrity_check before further use.
Fix 3
Why this works
Restore from the most recent backup.
What not to do
✗
Why it's wrong:
Sources
📚 Official docs: https://www.sqlite.org/rescode.html#ioerr_rollback_atomic
🔧 Source ref: sqlite3.h — SQLITE_IOERR_ROLLBACK_ATOMIC = 7946
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 →