I came across a similar question a few days ago. The answer as to why this works is in the source... /* We used to require that sqlite3_reset() be called before retrying ** sqlite3_step() after any error or after SQLITE_DONE. But beginning ** with version 3.7.0, we changed this so that sqlite3_reset() would ** be called automatically instead of throwing the SQLITE_MISUSE error. ** This "automatic-reset" change is not technically an incompatibility, ** since any application that receives an SQLITE_MISUSE is broken by ** definition.