diff --git a/pkg/db/db.go b/pkg/db/db.go
index 311bdfe57..04d12c6ff 100644
--- a/pkg/db/db.go
+++ b/pkg/db/db.go
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"github.com/go-xorm/core"
 	"github.com/go-xorm/xorm"
+	"os"
 	"strconv"
 	"time"
 
@@ -32,8 +33,16 @@ import (
 	_ "github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3"    // Because.
 )
 
+// We only want one instance of the engine, so we can reate it once and reuse it
+var x *xorm.Engine
+
 // CreateDBEngine initializes a db engine from the config
 func CreateDBEngine() (engine *xorm.Engine, err error) {
+
+	if x != nil {
+		return x, nil
+	}
+
 	// If the database type is not set, this likely means we need to initialize the config first
 	if config.DatabaseType.GetString() == "" {
 		config.InitConfig()
@@ -71,6 +80,27 @@ func CreateDBEngine() (engine *xorm.Engine, err error) {
 			log.Info("Did not find a valid cache type. Caching disabled. Please refer to the docs for poosible cache types.")
 		}
 	}
+
+	x = engine
+	return
+}
+
+// CreateTestEngine creates an instance of the db engine which lives in memory
+func CreateTestEngine() (engine *xorm.Engine, err error) {
+
+	if x != nil {
+		return x, nil
+	}
+
+	engine, err = xorm.NewEngine("sqlite3", "file::memory:?cache=shared")
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	engine.SetMapper(core.GonicMapper{})
+	engine.ShowSQL(os.Getenv("UNIT_TESTS_VERBOSE") == "1")
+	engine.SetLogger(xorm.NewSimpleLogger(log.GetLogWriter("database")))
+	x = engine
 	return
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/files/filehandling.go b/pkg/files/filehandling.go
index 2cb11131d..3bb047d1a 100644
--- a/pkg/files/filehandling.go
+++ b/pkg/files/filehandling.go
@@ -16,7 +16,13 @@
 
 package files
 
-import "github.com/spf13/afero"
+import (
+	"code.vikunja.io/api/pkg/db"
+	"code.vikunja.io/api/pkg/log"
+	"github.com/spf13/afero"
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+)
 
 // This file handling storing and retrieving a file for different backends
 
@@ -28,3 +34,30 @@ func InitFileHandler() {
 	fs = afero.NewOsFs()
 	afs = &afero.Afero{Fs: fs}
 }
+
+// InitTestFileHandler initializes a new memory file system for testing
+func InitTestFileHandler() {
+	fs = afero.NewMemMapFs()
+	afs = &afero.Afero{Fs: fs}
+}
+
+// InitTests handles the actual bootstrapping of the test env
+func InitTests() {
+	var err error
+	x, err = db.CreateTestEngine()
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	err = x.Sync2(GetTables()...)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	InitTestFileHandler()
+}
+
+// TestMain is the main test function used to bootstrap the test env
+func TestMain(m *testing.M) {
+	InitTests()
+	os.Exit(m.Run())
+}
diff --git a/pkg/files/files.go b/pkg/files/files.go
index 61e52357d..1f0e6c767 100644
--- a/pkg/files/files.go
+++ b/pkg/files/files.go
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ type File struct {
 	ID   int64  `xorm:"int(11) autoincr not null unique pk" json:"id"`
 	Name string `xorm:"text not null" json:"name"`
 	Mime string `xorm:"text null" json:"mime"`
-	Size int64  `xorm:"int(11) not null default 0" json:"size"`
+	Size int64  `xorm:"int(11) not null" json:"size"`
 
 	Created time.Time `xorm:"datetime" json:"created"`
 	Updated time.Time `xorm:"datetime" json:"updated"`
diff --git a/pkg/models/unit_tests.go b/pkg/models/unit_tests.go
index d4f041756..a6dd80b2b 100644
--- a/pkg/models/unit_tests.go
+++ b/pkg/models/unit_tests.go
@@ -19,11 +19,11 @@ package models
 import (
 	"code.vikunja.io/api/pkg/config"
 	_ "code.vikunja.io/api/pkg/config" // To trigger its init() which initializes the config
+	"code.vikunja.io/api/pkg/db"
 	"code.vikunja.io/api/pkg/files"
 	"code.vikunja.io/api/pkg/log"
 	"code.vikunja.io/api/pkg/mail"
 	"fmt"
-	"github.com/go-xorm/core"
 	"github.com/go-xorm/xorm"
 	"gopkg.in/testfixtures.v2"
 	"os"
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ import (
 
 // MainTest creates the test engine
 func MainTest(m *testing.M, pathToRoot string) {
+	// Some tests use the file engine, so we'll need to initialize that
+	files.InitTests()
+
 	SetupTests(pathToRoot)
 	os.Exit(m.Run())
 }
@@ -75,36 +78,21 @@ func createTestEngine(fixturesDir string) error {
 			fixturesHelper = &testfixtures.MySQL{}
 		}
 	} else {
-		x, err = xorm.NewEngine("sqlite3", "file::memory:?cache=shared")
+		x, err = db.CreateTestEngine()
 		if err != nil {
-			return err
+			return fmt.Errorf("error getting test engine: %v", err)
 		}
 
-		x.SetMapper(core.GonicMapper{})
-
 		// Sync dat shit
 		err = initSchema(x)
 		if err != nil {
 			return fmt.Errorf("sync database struct error: %v", err)
 		}
-
-		// Show SQL-Queries if necessary
-		if os.Getenv("UNIT_TESTS_VERBOSE") == "1" {
-			x.ShowSQL(true)
-		}
-	}
-
-	err = files.SetEngine()
-	if err != nil {
-		log.Fatal(err.Error())
 	}
 
 	return InitFixtures(fixturesHelper, fixturesDir)
 }
 
 func initSchema(tx *xorm.Engine) error {
-	schemeBeans := []interface{}{}
-	schemeBeans = append(schemeBeans, GetTables()...)
-	schemeBeans = append(schemeBeans, files.GetTables()...)
-	return tx.Sync2(schemeBeans...)
+	return tx.Sync2(GetTables()...)
 }