Django: reset migrations

1. Remove all migration from project

If you don’t have to preserve database or migration history during migration, you simply throwing whole migrations away.

1. Remove all migration files

Except the __init__.py, (or it’s ok to remove migrations directory itself) remove all migrate files.

You can use find command.

find . -path "*/migrations/*.py" -not -name "__ini__.py" -delete
find . -path "*/migrations/*.pyc" -delete

2. Drop current db

When you’re using sqlite, simply remove db.sqlite3 file.

Or using postgres, just drop db and create database again.

psql=# DROP DATABASE db_name;
psql=# CREATE DATABASE db_name;

3. Recreate initial migrations and re-generate db schema.

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

2. --fake zero

If you want to clear migration history app by app and keep the rest migration history, you can use --fake command.

1. showmigrations command to see history

First, see all tracking migrations with showmigrations. It will shows you all migrations files.

python manage.py showmigrations

admin
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_logentry_remove_auto_add
auth
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_alter_permission_name_max_length
 [X] 0003_alter_user_email_max_length
 [X] 0004_alter_user_username_opts
 [X] 0005_alter_user_last_login_null
 [X] 0006_require_contenttypes_0002
 [X] 0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages
contenttypes
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_remove_content_type_name
post
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_remove_mymodel_i
 [X] 0003_mymodel_bio
sessions
 [X] 0001_initial

2. clear migration history with --fake zero

Clear migration history from post app.

python manage.py migrate --fake post zero

Then run showmigrations again.

python manage.py showmigrations

admin
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_logentry_remove_auto_add
auth
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_alter_permission_name_max_length
 [X] 0003_alter_user_email_max_length
 [X] 0004_alter_user_username_opts
 [X] 0005_alter_user_last_login_null
 [X] 0006_require_contenttypes_0002
 [X] 0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages
contenttypes
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_remove_content_type_name
post
 [ ] 0001_initial
 [ ] 0002_remove_mymodel_i
 [ ] 0003_mymodel_bio
sessions
 [X] 0001_initial

3. clear real migration files

Inside target app (post app in example), remove all migration files.

find . -path "*/migrations/*.py" -not -name "__init__.py" -delete
find . -path "*/migrations/*.pyc"  -delete

Then showmigrations again.

python manage.py showmigrations

admin
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_logentry_remove_auto_add
auth
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_alter_permission_name_max_length
 [X] 0003_alter_user_email_max_length
 [X] 0004_alter_user_username_opts
 [X] 0005_alter_user_last_login_null
 [X] 0006_require_contenttypes_0002
 [X] 0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages
contenttypes
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_remove_content_type_name
post
 (no migrations)
sessions
 [X] 0001_initial

4. Create initial migrations and migrate again

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate --fake-initial

Then you can see initial migrate.

python manage.py showmigrations

admin
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_logentry_remove_auto_add
auth
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_alter_permission_name_max_length
 [X] 0003_alter_user_email_max_length
 [X] 0004_alter_user_username_opts
 [X] 0005_alter_user_last_login_null
 [X] 0006_require_contenttypes_0002
 [X] 0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages
contenttypes
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_remove_content_type_name
post
 [X] 0001_initial
sessions
 [X] 0001_initial