The Django syntax error on migrating is very annoying, specially when you don’t find any error when looking for one. This post contains a working solution.

Table of contents

• I get a syntax error when trying to migrate in Django
• The solution

I get a syntax error when trying to migrate in Django

When using the migrate commands in Django

$ python manage.py makemigrations
$ python manage.py migrate

You might get this ugly error:

File "/my/path/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py", line 92, in _execute_with_wrappers return executor(sql, params, many, context) 
File "/my/path/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py", line 100, in _execute with self.db.wrap_database_errors: 
File "/my/path/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 91, in exit_ raise dj_exc_value.with_traceback(traceback) from exc_value 
File "/my/path/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py", line 105, in _execute return self,cursor.execute(sq1,2arams) 
File "/my/path/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/db/backends/sqlite3/base.py" , line 329, in execute return super().execute(queryparams) 
django.db.utils.OperationalError: near ")": syntax error 

You can confirm using a tool like ruff or copy pasting online in a syntax checker to ensure that there are actually no syntax error. This is troubling.

Apparently, the error is caused by a bad model which got integrated in one of the migrations.

The solution

To solve a syntax error on using the migrate comamnds,

1. delete all files in all migrations folder except __init__.py
2. delete the sqlite database if need be

Bit hard, but it solves the issue.