Issue in using sqlcipher, error returned: "file is not a database"

Question

Apologies if the solution is buried somewhere in another thread or post. I could not find anything specific to this. I’m getting [Error: file is not a database].

My scenario:

• Downloaded sqlcipher to a PopOS installation. (3.15.2 //sqlcipher --version)
• Was successful in creating a new encrypted database. Could open, close and see results.
• Downloaded that database fie to MacOS (Catalina). (3.31.0 //sqlcipher --version)
• I opened the database and entered the “PRAGMA key” statement as the first input. (Confirmation: “ok”.) However, anything I do after that results in [Error: file is not a database].

Is this different versions that is causing the issue?

Answer 1

Had posted the above question at the following link as well: https://discuss.zetetic.net/t/error-file-is-not-a-database/4434 (copied the response below)

"This discussion forum post should point you in the correct direction: Upgrading to SQLCipher 4 1 (https://discuss.zetetic.net/t/upgrading-to-sqlcipher-4/3283). It sounds like your database was created using SQLCipher v3 and you’re attempting to open it using SQLCipher v4. To verify this assumption is correct, you can run PRAGMA cipher_version on each side."

The above was helpful to convert a 3.4 encrypted file into a 4.x version. However, to upgrade my Linux install to 4.x, these instructions were super helpful: https://github.com/sqlitebrowser/sqlitebrowser/wiki/SQLCipher:-Build-from-Source-on-Debian-Stretch---Newbie-Instructions