diff --git a/toolkit/components/places/Database.cpp b/toolkit/components/places/Database.cpp
index 154196a428e..7a263e7d65e 100644
--- a/toolkit/components/places/Database.cpp
+++ b/toolkit/components/places/Database.cpp
@@ -49,6 +49,9 @@
 
 #define BYTES_PER_KIBIBYTE 1024
 
+// How much time Sqlite can wait before returning a SQLITE_BUSY error.
+#define DATABASE_BUSY_TIMEOUT_MS 100
+
 // Old Sync GUID annotation.
 #define SYNCGUID_ANNO NS_LITERAL_CSTRING("sync/guid")
 
@@ -597,6 +600,10 @@ Database::InitSchema(bool* aDatabaseMigrated)
     (void)mMainConn->SetGrowthIncrement(growthIncrementKiB * BYTES_PER_KIBIBYTE, EmptyCString());
   }
 
+  nsAutoCString busyTimeoutPragma("PRAGMA busy_timeout = ");
+  busyTimeoutPragma.AppendInt(DATABASE_BUSY_TIMEOUT_MS);
+  (void)mMainConn->ExecuteSimpleSQL(busyTimeoutPragma);
+
   // We use our functions during migration, so initialize them now.
   rv = InitFunctions();
   NS_ENSURE_SUCCESS(rv, rv);
@@ -1210,8 +1217,6 @@ Database::MigrateV7Up()
     return NS_ERROR_FILE_CORRUPTED;
   }
 
-  mozStorageTransaction transaction(mMainConn, false);
-
   // We need an index on lastModified to catch quickly last modified bookmark
   // title for tag container's children. This will be useful for Sync, too.
   bool lastModIndexExists = false;
@@ -1391,7 +1396,7 @@ Database::MigrateV7Up()
     NS_ENSURE_SUCCESS(rv, rv);
   }
 
-  return transaction.Commit();
+  return NS_OK;
 }
 
 
@@ -1399,7 +1404,6 @@ nsresult
 Database::MigrateV8Up()
 {
   MOZ_ASSERT(NS_IsMainThread());
-  mozStorageTransaction transaction(mMainConn, false);
 
   nsresult rv = mMainConn->ExecuteSimpleSQL(NS_LITERAL_CSTRING(
       "DROP TRIGGER IF EXISTS moz_historyvisits_afterinsert_v1_trigger"));
@@ -1445,7 +1449,7 @@ Database::MigrateV8Up()
     NS_ENSURE_SUCCESS(rv, rv);
   }
 
-  return transaction.Commit();
+  return NS_OK;
 }
 
 
@@ -1453,7 +1457,6 @@ nsresult
 Database::MigrateV9Up()
 {
   MOZ_ASSERT(NS_IsMainThread());
-  mozStorageTransaction transaction(mMainConn, false);
   // Added in Bug 488966.  The last_visit_date column caches the last
   // visit date, this enhances SELECT performances when we
   // need to sort visits by visit date.
@@ -1485,7 +1488,7 @@ Database::MigrateV9Up()
     NS_ENSURE_SUCCESS(rv, rv);
   }
 
-  return transaction.Commit();
+  return NS_OK;
 }
 
 
diff --git a/toolkit/components/places/nsNavHistory.cpp b/toolkit/components/places/nsNavHistory.cpp
index 9886ac651d3..6aa14e4d91d 100644
--- a/toolkit/components/places/nsNavHistory.cpp
+++ b/toolkit/components/places/nsNavHistory.cpp
@@ -2267,7 +2267,9 @@ nsresult
 nsNavHistory::BeginUpdateBatch()
 {
   if (mBatchLevel++ == 0) {
-    mBatchDBTransaction = new mozStorageTransaction(mDB->MainConn(), false);
+    mBatchDBTransaction = new mozStorageTransaction(mDB->MainConn(), false,
+                                                    mozIStorageConnection::TRANSACTION_DEFERRED,
+                                                    true);
 
     NOTIFY_OBSERVERS(mCanNotify, mCacheObservers, mObservers,
                      nsINavHistoryObserver, OnBeginUpdateBatch());
@@ -2332,7 +2334,9 @@ nsNavHistory::RemovePagesInternal(const nsCString& aPlaceIdsQueryString)
   if (aPlaceIdsQueryString.IsEmpty())
     return NS_OK;
 
-  mozStorageTransaction transaction(mDB->MainConn(), false);
+  mozStorageTransaction transaction(mDB->MainConn(), false,
+                                    mozIStorageConnection::TRANSACTION_DEFERRED,
+                                    true);
 
   // Delete all visits for the specified place ids.
   nsresult rv = mDB->MainConn()->ExecuteSimpleSQL(
@@ -2724,7 +2728,9 @@ nsNavHistory::RemoveVisitsByTimeframe(PRTime aBeginTime, PRTime aEndTime)
   // force a full refresh calling onEndUpdateBatch (will call Refresh())
   UpdateBatchScoper batch(*this); // sends Begin/EndUpdateBatch to observers
 
-  mozStorageTransaction transaction(mDB->MainConn(), false);
+  mozStorageTransaction transaction(mDB->MainConn(), false,
+                                    mozIStorageConnection::TRANSACTION_DEFERRED,
+                                    true);
 
   // Delete all visits within the timeframe.
   nsCOMPtr<mozIStorageStatement> deleteVisitsStmt = mDB->GetStatement(
diff --git a/toolkit/components/places/tests/bookmarks/test_1017502-bookmarks_foreign_count.js b/toolkit/components/places/tests/bookmarks/test_1017502-bookmarks_foreign_count.js
index d2046620d2b..70bb9db9ad3 100644
--- a/toolkit/components/places/tests/bookmarks/test_1017502-bookmarks_foreign_count.js
+++ b/toolkit/components/places/tests/bookmarks/test_1017502-bookmarks_foreign_count.js
@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@ added or removed and also the maintenance task to fix wrong counts.
 
 const T_URI = NetUtil.newURI("https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/firstrun/");
 
-function* getForeignCountForURL(conn, url){
+function* getForeignCountForURL(conn, url) {
+  yield promiseAsyncUpdates();
   let url = url instanceof Ci.nsIURI ? url.spec : url;
   let rows = yield conn.executeCached(
       "SELECT foreign_count FROM moz_places WHERE url = :t_url ", { t_url: url });
@@ -106,4 +107,4 @@ add_task(function* add_remove_tags_test(){
   // Check foreign count is set to 0 when all tags are removed
   PlacesUtils.tagging.untagURI(T_URI, ["test tag", "one", "two"]);
   Assert.equal((yield getForeignCountForURL(conn, T_URI)), 0);
-});
\ No newline at end of file
+});