Django migrations fail in heroku

Question

I'm trying to deploy a Django (1.8) app to Heroku, runtime Python 3.4.2. The app runs succesfully (except the fact that tables are not created), but when trying run the syncdb I get the following error:

Running `python manage.py syncdb` attached to terminal... up, run.5851
/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management       
/commands/syncdb.py:24: RemovedInDjango19Warning: The syncdb command 
will be removed in Django 1.9
warnings.warn("The syncdb command will be removed in Django 1.9", RemovedInDjango19Warning)

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/db/migrations/loader.py", line 157, in check_key
return list(self.graph.root_nodes(key[0]))[0]
IndexError: list index out of range

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 338, in execute_from_command_line
utility.execute()
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django /core/management/__init__.py", line 330, in execute
self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 390, in run_from_argv
self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 441, in execute
output = self.handle(*args, **options)
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/syncdb.py", line 25, in handle
call_command("migrate", **options)
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 120, in call_command
return command.execute(*args, **defaults)
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 441, in execute
output = self.handle(*args, **options)
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/migrate.py", line 93, in handle
executor = MigrationExecutor(connection, self.migration_progress_callback)
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/db/migrations/executor.py", line 19, in __init__
self.loader = MigrationLoader(self.connection)
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/db/migrations/loader.py", line 47, in __init__
self.build_graph()
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/db/migrations/loader.py", line 287, in build_graph
parent = self.check_key(parent, key[0])
File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/db/migrations/loader.py", line 164, in check_key
raise ValueError("Dependency on app with no migrations: %s" % key[0])
ValueError: Dependency on app with no migrations: authentication

I'm using sqlite.

Answer 1

On your dev machine, create your migrations with python manage.py makemigrations. Then, assuming your migrations folders are pushed to heroku, on heroku run python manage.py migrate instead of python manage.py syncdb. See the docs.