django 1.8 fails to django.db.utils.ProgrammingError: relation "auth_user" does not exist

Question

I had a working project with django 1.7, and now I moved it to django 1.8. I can do syncdb and run the app with sqlite, but when I switch to postgres, it fails to do syncdb:

  Creating tables...
    Creating table x
    Creating table y
    Running deferred SQL...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 338, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 330, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 390, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 441, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/syncdb.py", line 25, in handle
    call_command("migrate", **options)
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 120, in call_command
    return command.execute(*args, **defaults)
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 441, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/migrate.py", line 179, in handle
    created_models = self.sync_apps(connection, executor.loader.unmigrated_apps)
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/migrate.py", line 317, in sync_apps
    cursor.execute(statement)
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py", line 79, in execute
    return super(CursorDebugWrapper, self).execute(sql, params)
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py", line 64, in execute
    return self.cursor.execute(sql, params)
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 97, in __exit__
    six.reraise(dj_exc_type, dj_exc_value, traceback)
  File "~/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py", line 62, in execute
    return self.cursor.execute(sql)
django.db.utils.ProgrammingError: relation "auth_user" does not exist

I tried deleting the database and recreating it. Also, I tried:

python manage.py migrate auth

which also fails:

django.db.utils.ProgrammingError: relation "django_site" does not exist

LINE 1: SELECT (1) AS "a" FROM "django_site" LIMIT 1

Please help get this fixed.

Answer 1

I didn't like the idea of commenting/uncommenting code, so I tried a different approach: I migrated "manually" some apps, and then run django-admin.py migrate for the remaining ones. After deleting all the *.pyc files, my sequence of commands was:

$ django-admin.py migrate auth
$ django-admin.py migrate contentypes
$ django-admin.py migrate sites
$ django-admin.py migrate MY_CUSTOM_USER_APP
$ django-admin.py migrate

where MY_CUSTOM_USER_APP is the name of the application containing the model I set AUTH_USER_MODEL to in my settings file.

Hope it can help. Btw, it seems strange that the best way to synchronize your db in Django 1.8 is so complicated. I wonder if I'm missing something (I'm not very familiar with Django 1.8, I used to work with older versions)

Answer 2

Working on Django 1.10 I found out another solution: My application is named "web", and first I call:

python manage.py makemigrations web

then I call:

python manage.py makemigrations auth

then I call:

python manage.py migrate

Amazed: IT'S WORKING! :) It seems auth was searching for the AUTH_USER_MODEL "web.UserProfile" and a relation named web_user_profile, and it didn't find it, hence the error. On the other hand, calling makemigrations web first creates the required relation first, before auth is able to check and alert it's not there.