diff --git a/src/data.py b/src/data.py
index 90c10e0..fe2f140 100644
--- a/src/data.py
+++ b/src/data.py
@@ -206,7 +206,10 @@ class PopconXapianIndex(xapian.WritableDatabase):
             # python garbage collector
         	gc.collect()
         # flush to disk database changes
-        self.commit()
+        try:
+            self.commit()
+        except:
+            self.flush() # deprecated function, used for old lib version
 
     def get_submissions(self,submissions_dir):
         """
--
libgit2 0.21.2