This is one of the reasons why in Entity Framework 6 for Sql Server a default in database creation has changed:
EF is now aligned with a “best practice” for SQL Server databases, which is to configure the database’s READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT setting to ON. This means that, by default, the database will create a snapshot of itself every time a change is made. Queries will be performed on the snapshot while updates are performed on the actual database.
So with databases created by EF 5 and lower, READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT
is OFF
which means that
the Database Engine uses shared locks to prevent other transactions from modifying rows while the current transaction is running a read operation.
Of course you can always change the setting yourself:
ALTER DATABASE MyDb SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT ON