Database returned an invalid value in QuerySet.dates()

Question

Looks like error caused Django's 1.6 timezone functionality changes. The docs now mention this error specifically (bug report, link to docs).

You have to load timezone tables into mysql (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/mysql-tzinfo-to-sql.html). Try execute on your database server:

mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -D mysql -u root -p 

And then run "flush tables" or "flush query cache", otherwise the problem may not disappear even though you've loaded the correct timezone data:

mysql -u root -p -e "flush tables;" mysql 

updated by @qris

For MacOS users I found solution here (in comment):

mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | sed -e "s/Local time zone must be set--see zic manual page/local/" | mysql -u root mysql

Because on MacOS we have error looks like this:

$ mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u roomysql

Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/+VERSION' as time zone. Skipping it.
Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Riyadh87' as time zone. Skipping it.
Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Riyadh88' as time zone. Skipping it.
Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Riyadh89' as time zone. Skipping it.
Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/Mideast/Riyadh87' as time zone. Skipping it.
Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/Mideast/Riyadh88' as time zone. Skipping it.
Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/Mideast/Riyadh89' as time zone. Skipping it.
ERROR 1406 (22001) at line 38981: Data too long for column 'Abbreviation' at row 1

What worked for me:

1. Populate the timezone definitions in the 'mysql' table

mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u root -p mysql

2. Flush tables

mysql -u root -p -e "flush tables;" mysql 

3. Restart mysql

sudo service mysql restart

For Windows, take the following steps:

• stop the service
• download the files provided by MySQL but note they go in
  C:\ProgramData\MySQL\MySQL Server VERSION\data\mysql
  not in
  C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server VERSION\data
  at least on Windows 7 as of 2014.
• I also modified C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server VERSION\my.ini to add default-time-zone = 'UTC' per the tips here. Then restart the service.

For anyone else passing through here with the same issue on Mavericks I was getting the error mentioned by Anton whereby I kept getting;

ERROR 1406 (22001) at line 38981: Data too long for column 'Abbreviation' at row 1

So I used mysql_tzinfo_to_sql tz_file tz_name from the MySQL docs to load the specific time zones that I wanted;

mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo/GMT GMT | mysql -u root -p mysql
mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC UTC | mysql -u root -p mysql

And now Django isn't returning errors so I'm happy :D

The Django docs actually talk about this problem:

I get an error “Are time zone definitions for your database and pytz installed?” pytz is installed, so I guess the problem is my database?

If you are using MySQL, see the Time zone definitions section of the MySQL notes for instructions on loading time zone definitions.

If you follow that link, you get this advice:

If you plan on using Django’s timezone support, use mysql_tzinfo_to_sql to load time zone tables into the MySQL database. This needs to be done just once for your MySQL server, not per database.

Here's the command:

mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo/ | mysql mysql