Django 1.7 throws django.core.exceptions.AppRegistryNotReady: Models aren't loaded yet

The issue is in your registration app. It seems django-registration calls get_user_module() in models.py at a module level (when models are still being loaded by the application registration process). This will no longer work:

try:
    from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
    User = get_user_model()
except ImportError:
    from django.contrib.auth.models import User    

I’d change this models file to only call get_user_model() inside methods (and not at module level) and in FKs use something like:

user = ForeignKey(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL)

BTW, the call to django.setup() shouldn’t be required in your manage.py file, it’s called for you in execute_from_command_line. (source)

Your manage.py is “wrong”; I don’t know where you got it from, but that’s not a 1.7 manage.py – were you using some funky pre-release build or something?

Reset your manage.py to the conventional, as below, and things Should Just Work:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys

if __name__ == "__main__":
    os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "{{ project_name }}.settings")

    from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line

    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)

Running these commands solved my problem (credit to this answer):

import django
django.setup()

However I’m not sure why I need this. Comments would be appreciated.

Do you have a Python virtual environment that you need to enter before you run manage.py?

I ran into this error myself, and that was the problem.

Just encountered the same issue. The problem is because of django-registration incompatible with django 1.7 user model.

A simple fix is to change these lines of code, at your installed django-registration module::

try:
    from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
    User = get_user_model()
except ImportError:
    from django.contrib.auth.models import User  

to::

from django.conf import settings
try:
    from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
    User = settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL
except ImportError:
    from django.contrib.auth.models import User 

Mine is at .venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/registration/models.py (virtualenv)

I ran into this issue when I use djangocms and added a plugin (in my case: djangocms-cascade). Of course I had to add the plugin to the INSTALLED_APPS. But the order is here important.

To place ‘cmsplugin_cascade’ before ‘cms’ solved the issue.

install django-registration-redux==1.1 instead django-registration, if you using django 1.7

Another option is that you have a duplicate entry in INSTALLED_APPS. That threw this error for two different apps I tested. Apparently it’s not something Django checks for, but then who’s silly enough to put the same app in the list twice. Me, that’s who.

This works for me for Django 1.9 . The Python script to execute was in the root of the Django project.

    import django 
    os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "PROJECT_NAME.settings")
    django.setup()
    from APP_NAME.models import *

Set PROJECT_NAME and APP_NAME to yours

./manage.py migrate

This solved my issue

My Problem was from init.py . i made an app and wanted to do this :

from MY_APP import myfunc

instead of :

from MY_APP.views import myfunc

when i rolled back my changes to these parts . everything worked just fine.

If you get this error in a context of creating ForeignKey relations between models. Example below raises AppRegistryNotReady: Models aren't loaded yet error.

from my_app.models import Workspace

workspace = models.ForeignKey(Workspace)

Then please try to reffer to a model as a string.

from my_app.models import Workspace

# One of these two lines might fix the problem.
workspace = models.ForeignKey('Workspace')
workspace = models.ForeignKey('my_app.Workspace')

I’m damn sure this is isn’t late. If you are using Django 4 and .env file for your settings, you are going to encounter this error if you define a value in settings.py while that value does not exist in .env file:

See following scenario:

I had PLAID_KEY in my settings.py as follows

PLAID_KEY=env('PLAID_KEY')

However, PLAID_KEY did not exist in my .env file, adding it fixed it.