I was getting "database locked" all the time until I found out some features of sqlite3 must be set by using SQL special instructions (i.e. using PRAGMA keyword). For instance, what apparently solved my problem with "database locked" was to set journal_mode to 'wal' (it is defaulting to 'delete', as stated here: https://www.sqlite.org/wal.html
$db->exec('PRAGMA journal_mode = wal;');
?>
Hope that helps.