This should also do the trick:

    launchctl stop com.apple.photolibraryd

(And replace “stop” with “start” to get it going again.)

Author here—-that is vastly better, thanks for pointing it out.

Why not just copy the database (and wal) to tmp before accessing it?

Lack of familiarity with SQLite—-and maybe some mistaken assumptions about its behavior :)

I often copy first because I'm afraid me locking the database is going to interfere the app. Although, for my Apple Notes extraction, I am hitting the database directly.