diff --git a/beets/dbcore/db.py b/beets/dbcore/db.py
index 058b52ff5..ef7231a76 100755
--- a/beets/dbcore/db.py
+++ b/beets/dbcore/db.py
@@ -693,10 +693,14 @@ class Transaction(object):
             cursor = self.db._connection().execute(statement, subvals)
             return cursor.lastrowid
         except sqlite3.OperationalError as e:
+            # In two specific cases, SQLite reports an error while accessing
+            # the underlying database file. We surface these exceptions as
+            # DBAccessError so the application can abort.
             if e.args[0] in ("attempt to write a readonly database",
                              "unable to open database file"):
-                raise DBAccessError('Unable to open database file.'
-                                    'It might be a permissions problem')
+                raise DBAccessError(e.args[0])
+            else:
+                raise
 
     def script(self, statements):
         """Execute a string containing multiple SQL statements."""