diff --git a/gramps/gen/db/write.py b/gramps/gen/db/write.py
index b0f27b0b2..7f9a36486 100644
--- a/gramps/gen/db/write.py
+++ b/gramps/gen/db/write.py
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ import time
 import bisect
 from functools import wraps
 import logging
-from sys import getfilesystemencoding
+from sys import maxsize, getfilesystemencoding
 
 from ..config import config
 if config.get('preferences.use-bsddb3') or sys.version_info[0] >= 3: