SQLite unable to open database file (code 14) on frequent "SELECT" query

before executing any query to this stuff (You should open your database). Close db after completion the task.

private DBHelper dbHelper = new DBHelper(context);

try {
    _db = dbHelper.getWritableDatabase();
} catch (SQLException s) {
    new Exception("Error with DB Open");
}

// Then write your query now.... and then close the db.

_db.close();

You can check out my git link1 git link2

Your code re-opens the database every time dbOpen() is called.

An SQLite database object is quite lightweight; it does not really make sense to keep closing and re-opening it.

You already have your singleton; just store a single SQLiteDatabase reference there.

As an addition, I believe that having too many cursors, and thus open's, can also result in the same "unable to open database file error". (in the following code, there's 507 rows in the shoplistcursor, so that was over 1500 cursors used/reused in total)

I was getting the same message. As per :-

10-29 19:57:00.901 12845-12845/mjt.shopper E/SQLiteLog: (14) cannot open file at line 30046 of [9491ba7d73]
10-29 19:57:00.901 12845-12845/mjt.shopper E/SQLiteLog: (14) os_unix.c:30046: (24) open(/data/data/mjt.shopper/databases/Shopper-journal) - 
10-29 19:57:00.901 12845-12845/mjt.shopper E/SQLiteLog: (14) cannot open file at line 30046 of [9491ba7d73]
10-29 19:57:00.901 12845-12845/mjt.shopper E/SQLiteLog: (14) os_unix.c:30046: (24) open(/data/data/mjt.shopper/databases/Shopper-journal) - 
10-29 19:57:00.901 12845-12845/mjt.shopper E/SQLiteLog: (14) statement aborts at 24: [SELECT *  FROM productusage WHERE productailseref = 60 AND productproductref = 75 ;] unable to open database file
10-29 19:57:00.902 12845-12845/mjt.shopper E/SQLiteQuery: exception: unable to open database file (code 14); query: SELECT *  FROM productusage WHERE productailseref = 60 AND productproductref = 75 ;
10-29 19:57:00.902 12845-12845/mjt.shopper D/AndroidRuntime: Shutting down VM
10-29 19:57:00.903 12845-12845/mjt.shopper E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main

The code, that was in error, was :-

 SQLiteDatabase db = getWritableDatabase();
        Cursor shoplistcursor = getAllRowsFromTable(SHOPLIST_TABLE_NAME);
        Cursor productcsr;
        Cursor aislecsr;
        Cursor prdusecsr;
        while(shoplistcursor.moveToNext()) {
            productcsr = getProductFromProductId(shoplistcursor.getLong(shoplistcursor.getColumnIndex(SHOPLIST_COLUMN_PRODUCTREF)));
            aislecsr = getAisleFromAisleId(shoplistcursor.getLong(shoplistcursor.getColumnIndex(SHOPLIST_COLUMN_AISLEREF)));
            prdusecsr = getProductUsage(shoplistcursor.getLong(shoplistcursor.getColumnIndex(SHOPLIST_COLUMN_AISLEREF)),
                    shoplistcursor.getLong(shoplistcursor.getColumnIndex(SHOPLIST_COLUMN_PRODUCTREF)));
            if (productcsr.getCount() < 1 | aislecsr.getCount() < 1 | prdusecsr.getCount() < 1) {
                deleteShopListEntry(shoplistcursor.getLong(shoplistcursor.getColumnIndex(SHOPLIST_COLUMN_ID)));
            } 
            if(shoplistcursor.isLast()) {
                prdusecsr.close();
                aislecsr.close();
                productcsr.close();
            }
        }
        shoplistcursor.close();
        db.close();
}

The cure was to close the cursors on each iteration. As per :-

 SQLiteDatabase db = getWritableDatabase();
        Cursor shoplistcursor = getAllRowsFromTable(SHOPLIST_TABLE_NAME);
        Cursor productcsr;
        Cursor aislecsr;
        Cursor prdusecsr;
        while(shoplistcursor.moveToNext()) {
            productcsr = getProductFromProductId(shoplistcursor.getLong(shoplistcursor.getColumnIndex(SHOPLIST_COLUMN_PRODUCTREF)));
            aislecsr = getAisleFromAisleId(shoplistcursor.getLong(shoplistcursor.getColumnIndex(SHOPLIST_COLUMN_AISLEREF)));
            prdusecsr = getProductUsage(shoplistcursor.getLong(shoplistcursor.getColumnIndex(SHOPLIST_COLUMN_AISLEREF)),
                    shoplistcursor.getLong(shoplistcursor.getColumnIndex(SHOPLIST_COLUMN_PRODUCTREF)));
            if (productcsr.getCount() < 1 | aislecsr.getCount() < 1 | prdusecsr.getCount() < 1) {
                productcsr.close();
                aislecsr.close();
                prdusecsr.close();
                deleteShopListEntry(shoplistcursor.getLong(shoplistcursor.getColumnIndex(SHOPLIST_COLUMN_ID)));
            } else {
                productcsr.close();
                aislecsr.close();
                prdusecsr.close();
            }
        }
        shoplistcursor.close();
        db.close();
    }