django django-models django-migrations django-database

Can no longer drop database and reapply migrations in Django?

Throughout writting my app many times I have had to delete my database and re run my migrations. This has always worked by simply deleteing the database file then just running manage.py migrate . However now when I try to do this, I get an error saying django.db.utils.OperationalError: no such table: Planner_course where Planner is my app name and Course is one of my class schemas. What I am doing essentially follows this answer.I am unsure why less than a week ago I was able to reset my database using this method and now I cannot. Does anybody have any ideas? I get error wether I run makemigrations migrate or even runserver, where as everyother time it would simply remake the db and apply the migrations when I reran the migrations with no db. Here is the full error code:

"C:\Program Files\JetBrains\PyCharm 2019.3.3\bin\runnerw64.exe" C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\python.exe "C:\Program Files\JetBrains\PyCharm 2019.3.3\plugins\python\helpers\pycharm\django_manage.py" migrate C:/Users/cabra/OneDrive/Desktop/CoursePlanner
Tracking file by folder pattern:  migrations
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\utils.py", line 86, in _execute
    return self.cursor.execute(sql, params)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\sqlite3\base.py", line 396, in execute
    return Database.Cursor.execute(self, query, params)
sqlite3.OperationalError: no such table: Planner_course

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files\JetBrains\PyCharm 2019.3.3\plugins\python\helpers\pycharm\django_manage.py", line 52, in <module>
    run_command()
  File "C:\Program Files\JetBrains\PyCharm 2019.3.3\plugins\python\helpers\pycharm\django_manage.py", line 46, in run_command
    run_module(manage_file, None, '__main__', True)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\runpy.py", line 206, in run_module
    return _run_module_code(code, init_globals, run_name, mod_spec)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\runpy.py", line 96, in _run_module_code
    _run_code(code, mod_globals, init_globals,
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\runpy.py", line 86, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "C:/Users/cabra/OneDrive/Desktop/CoursePlanner\manage.py", line 21, in <module>
    main()
  File "C:/Users/cabra/OneDrive/Desktop/CoursePlanner\manage.py", line 17, in main
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 401, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 395, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\base.py", line 328, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\base.py", line 366, in execute
    self.check()
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\base.py", line 392, in check
    all_issues = self._run_checks(
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\commands\migrate.py", line 64, in _run_checks
    issues.extend(super()._run_checks(**kwargs))
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\base.py", line 382, in _run_checks
    return checks.run_checks(**kwargs)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\core\checks\registry.py", line 72, in run_checks
    new_errors = check(app_configs=app_configs)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\core\checks\urls.py", line 13, in check_url_config
    return check_resolver(resolver)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\core\checks\urls.py", line 23, in check_resolver
    return check_method()
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\urls\resolvers.py", line 407, in check
    for pattern in self.url_patterns:
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\utils\functional.py", line 48, in __get__
    res = instance.__dict__[self.name] = self.func(instance)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\urls\resolvers.py", line 588, in url_patterns
    patterns = getattr(self.urlconf_module, "urlpatterns", self.urlconf_module)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\utils\functional.py", line 48, in __get__
    res = instance.__dict__[self.name] = self.func(instance)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\urls\resolvers.py", line 581, in urlconf_module
    return import_module(self.urlconf_name)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\importlib\__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1014, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 671, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 783, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "C:/Users/cabra/OneDrive/Desktop/CoursePlanner\CoursePlanner\urls.py", line 21, in <module>
    path('', include('Planner.urls'))
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\urls\conf.py", line 34, in include
    urlconf_module = import_module(urlconf_module)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\importlib\__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1014, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 671, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 783, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "C:/Users/cabra/OneDrive/Desktop/CoursePlanner\Planner\urls.py", line 2, in <module>
    from . import views
  File "C:/Users/cabra/OneDrive/Desktop/CoursePlanner\Planner\views.py", line 15, in <module>
    for course in courses:
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\query.py", line 276, in __iter__
    self._fetch_all()
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\query.py", line 1261, in _fetch_all
    self._result_cache = list(self._iterable_class(self))
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\query.py", line 57, in __iter__
    results = compiler.execute_sql(chunked_fetch=self.chunked_fetch, chunk_size=self.chunk_size)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\sql\compiler.py", line 1144, in execute_sql
    cursor.execute(sql, params)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\utils.py", line 100, in execute
    return super().execute(sql, params)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\utils.py", line 68, in execute
    return self._execute_with_wrappers(sql, params, many=False, executor=self._execute)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\utils.py", line 77, in _execute_with_wrappers
    return executor(sql, params, many, context)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\utils.py", line 86, in _execute
    return self.cursor.execute(sql, params)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\utils.py", line 90, in __exit__
    raise dj_exc_value.with_traceback(traceback) from exc_value
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\utils.py", line 86, in _execute
    return self.cursor.execute(sql, params)
  File "C:\Users\cabra\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\sqlite3\base.py", line 396, in execute
    return Database.Cursor.execute(self, query, params)
django.db.utils.OperationalError: no such table: Planner_course

Process finished with exit code 1

Solution

I ended up solving this by wiping all imports of views.py as well, for some reason that worked. My advice to anyone else in this situation:

create a backup of your project folder
delete db from project folder
clear all imports of views.py. For example this might be imported in your urls.py and in models.py.
Then, run migrations if you kept your migrations or makemigrations if you didnt
This should rebuild your db. Copy this new db to a folder somewhere you will remember
Restore all files from your backup
copy new db into restored project(replace old db)

cheers