diff --git a/jupyter_server/base/handlers.py b/jupyter_server/base/handlers.py
index 6f2bbda04..6ceae2780 100644
--- a/jupyter_server/base/handlers.py
+++ b/jupyter_server/base/handlers.py
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@
 import mimetypes
 import os
 import re
-import sqlite3
 import types
 import warnings
 from http.client import responses
@@ -37,6 +36,7 @@
 from jupyter_server.utils import (
     ensure_async,
     filefind,
+    is_sqlite_disk_full_error,
     url_escape,
     url_is_absolute,
     url_path_join,
@@ -766,12 +766,9 @@ def write_error(self, status_code: int, **kwargs: Any) -> None:
             if isinstance(e, HTTPError):
                 reply["message"] = e.log_message or message
                 reply["reason"] = e.reason
-            elif (
-                isinstance(e, sqlite3.OperationalError)
-                and e.sqlite_errorcode == sqlite3.SQLITE_FULL
-            ):
+            elif is_sqlite_disk_full_error(e):
                 reply["message"] = "Disk is full"
-                reply["reason"] = e.sqlite_errorname
+                reply["reason"] = str(e)
             else:
                 reply["message"] = "Unhandled error"
                 reply["reason"] = None
diff --git a/jupyter_server/utils.py b/jupyter_server/utils.py
index 0c987bff2..c11f30d93 100644
--- a/jupyter_server/utils.py
+++ b/jupyter_server/utils.py
@@ -433,3 +433,12 @@ class JupyterServerAuthWarning(RuntimeWarning):
     Intended for filtering out expected warnings in tests, including
     downstream tests, rather than for users to silence this warning.
     """
+
+
+def is_sqlite_disk_full_error(e: Exception) -> bool:
+    try:
+        import sqlite3
+
+        return isinstance(e, sqlite3.OperationalError) and e.sqlite_errorcode == sqlite3.SQLITE_FULL
+    except (AttributeError, ImportError) as e:
+        return "database or disk is full" in str(e)