How can I prevent TortoiseSVN database locking up?

[AJ Pérez]

This question was originally posted on StackOverflow (by myself), I thought I'd give it a try asking it also here.

I have a Windows 7 PC with the latest TortoiseSVN version (1.11.0 x64). Almost every time I want to commit changes to the server, I get the following error:

Commit failed (details follow):
Failed to load properties: sqlite[S5]: database is locked
Error unlocking locked dirs (details follow): sqlite[S5]: database is locked 

 

Another process is blocking the working copy database, or the underlying filesystem does not support file locking; if the working copy is on a network filesystem, make sure file locking has been enabled on the file server.

It's easy to fix - I just go to the project root folder, do an SVN cleanup, and then the commit works fine. However, if I want to commit again a few minutes after that, it will most likely fail again and force me to do another cleanup. It gets really annoying.

A few more details:

• Both my SVN projects and TortoiseSVN itself are placed in my local HDD (no network filesystem), and their folders are excluded from the antivirus software.
  
• The working copy folder is not network shared (nor locally, I'm the only user on that PC).
  
• I don't have Dropbox, Google Drive or any other cloud software sync'ing the folder, either.
  
• It's specific to TortoiseSVN, I never get this error when I commit my changes from Eclipse.
  
• I really don't think it's a TortoiseSVN bug though, I recently updated from version 1.9.6 to 1.11.0 and both had the same issue, if this really was a bug it surely would have been fixed... right? :)
  
• I'm the only developer currently working with the projects (it's not an issue of my local database being out of date, or existing conflicts).

Is there any way I can prevent these locks from happening? Any settings I can change on TortoiseSVN, or something?

Thanks!

[Stefan]

I had the same problem in my office for a while. Turned out it was the virus scanner keeping the db files open so svn couldn't access its own files anymore for too long.

Convincing my boss to have that virus scanner removed from my machine and use another one fixed the problem for me.