Django - ImportError: No module named apps

Question

I am trying out the Django tutorial on the djangoproject.com website, but when I reach the part where I do the first "makemigrations polls" I keep getting this error:

ImportError: No module named apps

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 22, in 
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 338, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 312, in execute
    django.setup()
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/__init__.py", line 18, in setup
    apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/apps/registry.py", line 85, in populate
    app_config = AppConfig.create(entry)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/apps/config.py", line 112, in create
    mod = import_module(mod_path)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/importlib/__init__.py", line 37, in import_module
    __import__(name)

How can I resolve this error?

Answer 1

Your problem is that your Django version does not match the version of the tutorial.

In Django 1.9+, the startapp command automatically creates an app config class, so the tutorial asks you to add polls.apps.PollsConfig to INSTALLED_APPS.

For Django 1.8 and earlier, the tutorial asks you to add polls to INSTALLED_APPS. If you add polls.apps.PollsConfig instead, you will get an import error, unless you create the PollsConfig manually.

Answer 2

There is an error in the tutorial.

It instructs to add polls.apps.PollsConfig in the INSTALLED_APPS section of the settings.py file. I changed it from polls.apps.PollsConfig to simply polls and that did the trick. I was able to successfully make migrations.

I hope this helps other people who face similar problems.