diff --git a/changelog.d/15301.bugfix b/changelog.d/15301.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c8f3628d3493
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/15301.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Fix a bug introduced in Synapse 1.75.0rc1 where the [SQLite port_db script](https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/postgres.html#porting-from-sqlite)
+would fail to open the SQLite database.
+
diff --git a/synapse/_scripts/synapse_port_db.py b/synapse/_scripts/synapse_port_db.py
index 2c9cbf8b275b..78d76d38ad90 100755
--- a/synapse/_scripts/synapse_port_db.py
+++ b/synapse/_scripts/synapse_port_db.py
@@ -1329,7 +1329,7 @@ def main() -> None:
     sqlite_config = {
         "name": "sqlite3",
         "args": {
-            "database": "file:{}?mode=rw".format(args.sqlite_database),
+            "database": args.sqlite_database,
             "cp_min": 1,
             "cp_max": 1,
             "check_same_thread": False,