Python: ValueError: unsupported format character ''' (0x27) at index 1

It looks like python is interpreting the % as a printf-like format character. Try using %%?

"SELECT fileid 
FROM files 
WHERE description LIKE '%%%s%%' 
    OR filename LIKE '%%%s%%' 
    OR uploader LIKE '%%%s%%' 
    ORDER BY fileid DESC" % (search, search, search)

Just for you info: I tried the solution of @Pochi today, in Python 3.6, and for some reason it provoked not expected behaviour. I had two, and three arguments for format string, so at the end was:

% (Search, Search)

My string ("search") began with an upper "S". I got the error message:

ValueError: unsupported format character 'S' (0x53) at index 113

I changed uppercase to lowercase, and the error was:

TypeError: not enough arguments for format string

Then I just put my arguments inside of double %% at the beginning and the end, and it worked. So my code looked like:

"SELECT fileid 
FROM files 
WHERE description LIKE '%%search%%' 
    OR filename LIKE '%%search%%'
    ORDER BY fileid DESC"

Another solution would be the one provided by @Alice Yuan. She just doubled the percentage sings, and it works.

My solution:

query = """SELECT id, name FROM provice WHERE name LIKE %s"""
cursor.execute(query, '%%%s%%' % name)

I think it's easy way to fix this issue!