"No installed app with label 'admin'" in empty Django 2.2 project

Question

I am starting a new project in Django 2.2 using the same commands as I always do:

python3 -m venv django-env
. django-env/bin/activate
pip install django
django-admin startproject mysite
cd mysite/
python3 manage.py runserver 8080

This should result in a running Django site, ready to write some code. Unfortunately, now I'm getting a strange error:

LookupError: No installed app with label 'admin'.

Full traceback:

Watching for file changes with StatReloader
Exception in thread Thread-1:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/threading.py", line 916, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/threading.py", line 864, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 54, in wrapper
    fn(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/core/management/commands/runserver.py", line 109, in inner_run
    autoreload.raise_last_exception()
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 77, in raise_last_exception
    raise _exception[0](_exception[1]).with_traceback(_exception[2])
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 54, in wrapper
    fn(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/__init__.py", line 24, in setup
    apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/apps/registry.py", line 114, in populate
    app_config.import_models()
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/apps/config.py", line 211, in import_models
    self.models_module = import_module(models_module_name)
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 994, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 971, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 955, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 665, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 678, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/contrib/auth/models.py", line 2, in <module>
    from django.contrib.auth.base_user import AbstractBaseUser, BaseUserManager
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/contrib/auth/base_user.py", line 47, in <module>
    class AbstractBaseUser(models.Model):
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/base.py", line 117, in __new__
    new_class.add_to_class('_meta', Options(meta, app_label))
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/base.py", line 321, in add_to_class
    value.contribute_to_class(cls, name)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/options.py", line 204, in contribute_to_class
    self.db_table = truncate_name(self.db_table, connection.ops.max_name_length())
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 28, in __getattr__
    return getattr(connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS], item)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 201, in __getitem__
    backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE'])
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 110, in load_backend
    return import_module('%s.base' % backend_name)
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/db/backends/sqlite3/base.py", line 66, in <module>
    check_sqlite_version()
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/db/backends/sqlite3/base.py", line 63, in check_sqlite_version
    raise ImproperlyConfigured('SQLite 3.8.3 or later is required (found %s).' % Database.sqlite_version)
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: SQLite 3.8.3 or later is required (found 3.7.17).

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/apps/registry.py", line 155, in get_app_config
    return self.app_configs[app_label]
KeyError: 'admin'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 21, in <module>
    main()
  File "manage.py", line 17, in main
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 381, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 375, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 323, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/core/management/commands/runserver.py", line 60, in execute
    super().execute(*args, **options)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 364, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/core/management/commands/runserver.py", line 95, in handle
    self.run(**options)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/core/management/commands/runserver.py", line 102, in run
    autoreload.run_with_reloader(self.inner_run, **options)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 579, in run_with_reloader
    start_django(reloader, main_func, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 564, in start_django
    reloader.run(django_main_thread)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 272, in run
    get_resolver().urlconf_module
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/utils/functional.py", line 80, in __get__
    res = instance.__dict__[self.name] = self.func(instance)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/urls/resolvers.py", line 564, in urlconf_module
    return import_module(self.urlconf_name)
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 994, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 971, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 955, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 665, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 678, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/mysite/mysite/urls.py", line 20, in <module>
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/utils/functional.py", line 256, in inner
    self._setup()
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/contrib/admin/sites.py", line 529, in _setup
    AdminSiteClass = import_string(apps.get_app_config('admin').default_site)
  File "/home/ec2-user/environment/django-env/lib64/python3.6/dist-packages/django/apps/registry.py", line 162, in get_app_config
    raise LookupError(message)
LookupError: No installed app with label 'admin'.

However after downgrading version of Django with pip install django==2.1.8

Everything is back to normal and works as expected.

I have looked at Django 2.2 release notes and list of backward incompatible changes and deprecated features and haven't found anything. Can anyone please shed some light as to what is happening?

Tancred

Answer 1

The key error is earlier in the traceback:

raise ImproperlyConfigured('SQLite 3.8.3 or later is required (found %s).' % Database.sqlite_version)
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: SQLite 3.8.3 or later is required (found 3.7.17).

In Django 2.2, the minimum version of SQLite is increased from 3.7.15 to 3.8.3. Your installed version is too old.

Fugleman

Answer 2

This usually happens if you were previously working in an older version python/django, and now you try to run the app in newer version. To fix this, migrate and apply migrations, install any modules found missing. To avoid these kind of issues, use container like docker.

Heptastich

I had a similar problem. I'm substituting SQLITE with postgresql. It turned out that my database configuration had a postgresql typo at 'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql'. By trying to migrate as @Heptastich mentioned, it helped to point out that there wasn't any 'django.db.backends.XXX'. So fixing the typo at XXX worked. – Mounting