EF-Core: Table "name" already exists - when trying to update database

Question

ASP Core 3.1 - API. I'm using the latest version of Entity Framework Core.

I have created a table ToDoItem and a ToDoItemContext. After creating the initial migration, and running update-database. I now have that table in my database. I now added a new model called: ToDoItemDescription.

When I try to update the database after creating a new migration, I get the error:

Table 'todoitems' already exists

Further details: I have two contexts, and this is the command I ran:

update-database -context todoitemscontext

I also tried:

update-database -context todoitemscontext -migration AddDescription

Here is my full code:

Models:

public class TodoItem : IEntity 
{
    public long Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    bool IsComplete { get; set; }
}

public class ToDoItemDescription 
{
    public int id { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
    //public int ToDoItemId { get; set; }
    public TodoItem TodoItem { get; set; }
}

Context:

public class TodoItemsContext : DbContext 
{
   public TodoItemsContext(DbContextOptions<TodoItemsContext> options) : base(options) { }

   public DbSet<TodoItem> TodoItems { get; set; }
   public DbSet<ToDoItemDescription> TodoItemsDescription { get; set; }
}

Migrations:

[DbContext(typeof(TodoItemsContext))]
partial class TodoItemsContextModelSnapshot : ModelSnapshot 
{
    protected override void BuildModel(ModelBuilder modelBuilder) {
    #pragma warning disable 612, 618
    modelBuilder
        .HasAnnotation("ProductVersion", "3.1.9")
        .HasAnnotation("Relational:MaxIdentifierLength", 64);
    modelBuilder.Entity("project.Models.ToDoItemDescription", b => {
        b.Property<int>("id")
        .ValueGeneratedOnAdd()
        .HasColumnType("int");
        b.Property<string>("Description")
        .HasColumnType("longtext CHARACTER SET utf8mb4");
        b.Property<long?>("TodoItemId")
        .HasColumnType("bigint");
        b.HasKey("id");
        b.HasIndex("TodoItemId");
        b.ToTable("TodoItemsDescription");
    });

    modelBuilder.Entity("project.Models.TodoItem", b => {
        b.Property<long>("Id")
        .ValueGeneratedOnAdd()
        .HasColumnType("bigint");
        b.Property<bool>("IsComplete")
        .HasColumnType("tinyint(1)");
        b.Property<string>("Name")
        .HasColumnType("longtext CHARACTER SET utf8mb4");
        b.HasKey("Id");
        b.ToTable("TodoItems");
    });
    modelBuilder.Entity("project.Models.ToDoItemDescription", b =>
    {
    b.HasOne("project.Models.TodoItem", "TodoItem")
        .WithMany()
        .HasForeignKey("TodoItemId");
    });
#pragma warning restore 612, 618
}

public partial class TodoItems_Initial : Migration
{
        protected override void Up(MigrationBuilder migrationBuilder)
        {
            migrationBuilder.CreateTable(
                name: "TodoItems",
                columns: table => new
                {
                    Id = table.Column<long>(nullable: false)
                        .Annotation("MySql:ValueGenerationStrategy", MySqlValueGenerationStrategy.IdentityColumn),
                    Name = table.Column<string>(nullable: true),
                    IsComplete = table.Column<bool>(nullable: false)
                },
                constraints: table =>
                {
                    table.PrimaryKey("PK_TodoItems", x => x.Id);
                });
        }

        protected override void Down(MigrationBuilder migrationBuilder)
        {
            migrationBuilder.DropTable(
                name: "TodoItems");
        }
    }

public partial class AddDescription : Migration
{
        protected override void Up(MigrationBuilder migrationBuilder)
        {
            migrationBuilder.CreateTable(
                name: "TodoItemsDescription",
                columns: table => new
                {
                    id = table.Column<int>(nullable: false)
                        .Annotation("MySql:ValueGenerationStrategy", MySqlValueGenerationStrategy.IdentityColumn),
                    Description = table.Column<string>(nullable: true),
                    TodoItemId = table.Column<long>(nullable: true)
                },
                constraints: table =>
                {
                    table.PrimaryKey("PK_TodoItemsDescription", x => x.id);
                    table.ForeignKey(
                        name: "FK_TodoItemsDescription_TodoItems_TodoItemId",
                        column: x => x.TodoItemId,
                        principalTable: "TodoItems",
                        principalColumn: "Id",
                        onDelete: ReferentialAction.Restrict);
                });

            migrationBuilder.CreateIndex(
                name: "IX_TodoItemsDescription_TodoItemId",
                table: "TodoItemsDescription",
                column: "TodoItemId");
        }

        protected override void Down(MigrationBuilder migrationBuilder)
        {
            migrationBuilder.DropTable(
                name: "TodoItemsDescription");
        }
}

Thank you.

Answer 1

This happens if you have created the database upfront without migrations, for example by using DbContext.Database.EnsureCreated();.

Answer 2

This usually happens when you have a migration that creates a table and the required table is already present in your database so, when you update the database from classes in Migration, it will try to create a table and will fail because the Create command will not be executed as it already has that specific table.

So, in order to avoid the error, you might want to remove the migration class or comment the code in Up() method of that class so it doesn't execute that specific create command.