Django model “doesn't declare an explicit app_label”

I'm at wit's end. After a dozen hours of troubleshooting, probably more, I thought I was finally in business, but then I got:

Model class django.contrib.contenttypes.models.ContentType doesn't declare an explicit app_label


There is SO LITTLE info on this on the web, and no solution out there has resolved my issue. Any advice would be tremendously appreciated.

I'm using Python 3.4 and Django 1.10.

From my settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
'DeleteNote.apps.DeletenoteConfig',
'LibrarySync.apps.LibrarysyncConfig',
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
]


And my apps.py files look like this:

from django.apps import AppConfig


class DeletenoteConfig(AppConfig):
name = 'DeleteNote'


and

from django.apps import AppConfig


class LibrarysyncConfig(AppConfig):
name = 'LibrarySync'


12 Answers
12

Are you missing putting in your application name into the settings file?
The myAppNameConfig is the default class generated at apps.py by the .manage.py createapp myAppName command. Where myAppName is the name of your app.

myAppNameConfig

settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
'myAppName.apps.myAppNameConfig',
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
]


This way, the settings file finds out what you want to call your application. You can change how it looks later in the apps.py file by adding the following code in

myAppName/apps.py

class myAppNameConfig(AppConfig):
name = 'myAppName'
verbose_name = 'A Much Better Name'


import django django.setup()

INSTALLED_APPS

I got this one when I used ./manage.py shell
then I accidentally imported from the root project level directory

./manage.py shell

# don't do this
from project.someapp.someModule import something_using_a_model
# do this
from someapp.someModule import something_using_a_model

something_using_a_model()


I had exactly the same error when running tests with PyCharm. I've fixed it by explicitly setting DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable. If you're using PyCharm, just hit Edit Configurations button and choose Environment Variables.

DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE

Set the variable to your_project_name.settings and that should fix the thing.

your_project_name.settings

It seems like this error occurs, because PyCharm runs tests with its own manage.py.

manage.py

as a noob using Python3 ,I find it might be an import error instead of a Django error

wrong:

from someModule import someClass


right:

from .someModule import someClass


this happens a few days ago but I really can't reproduce it...I think only people new to Django may encounter this.here's what I remember:

try to register a model in admin.py:

from django.contrib import admin
from user import User
admin.site.register(User)


try to run server, error looks like this

some lines...
File "/path/to/admin.py" ,line 6
tell you there is an import error
some lines...
Model class django.contrib.contenttypes.models.ContentType doesn't declare an explicit app_label


change user to .user ,problem solved

user

.user

I had the same problem just now. I've fixed mine by adding a namespace on the app name. Hope someone find this helpful.

apps.py

from django.apps import AppConfig

class SalesClientConfig(AppConfig):
name = 'portal.sales_client'
verbose_name = 'Sales Client'


I got this error while trying to upgrade my Django Rest Framework app to DRF 3.6.3 and Django 1.11.1.

For anyone else in this situation, I found my solution in a GitHub issue, which was to unset the UNAUTHENTICATED_USER setting in the DRF settings:

UNAUTHENTICATED_USER

# webapp/settings.py
...
REST_FRAMEWORK = {
...
'UNAUTHENTICATED_USER': None
...
}


I received this error after I moved the SECRET_KEY to pull from an environment variable and forgot to set it when running the application. If you have something like this in your settings.py

SECRET_KEY

settings.py

SECRET_KEY = os.getenv('SECRET_KEY')


then make sure you are actually setting the environment variable.

I ran into this error when I tried generating migrations for a single app which had existing malformed migrations due to a git merge. e.g.

manage.py makemigrations myapp


When I deleted it's migrations and then ran:

manage.py makemigrations


the error did not occur and the migrations generated successfully.

Most probably you have dependent imports.

In my case I used a serializer class as a parameter in my model, and the serializer class was using this model:
serializer_class = AccountSerializer

from ..api.serializers import AccountSerializer

class Account(AbstractBaseUser):
serializer_class = AccountSerializer
...


And in the "serializers" file:

from ..models import Account

class AccountSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = Account
fields = (
'id', 'email', 'date_created', 'date_modified',
'firstname', 'lastname', 'password', 'confirm_password')
...


I got this error on importing models in tests, i.e. given this Django project structure:

|-- myproject
|-- manage.py
|-- myproject
|-- myapp
|-- models.py # defines model: MyModel
|-- tests
|-- test_models.py


in file test_models.py I imported MyModel in this way:

test_models.py

MyModel

from models import MyModel


The problem was fixed if it is imported in this way:

from myapp.models import MyModel


Hope this helps!

PS: Maybe this is a bit late, but I not found in others answers how to solve this problem in my code and I want to share my solution.

I just ran into this issue and figured out what was going wrong. Since no previous answer described the issue as it happened to me, I though I would post it for others:

python migrate.py startapp myApp

mv myApp myFolderWithApps/

python migrate.py makemigrations

myFolderWithApps.myApp

So to make a long story short:
- the issue was initially coming from the wrong app name in apps.py of myApp, in settings and in the import path of my second app.
- but it was not enough to correct the paths in these three places, as migrations had been created with imports referencing the wrong app name. Therefore, the same error kept happening while migrating (except this time from migrations).

So... check your migrations, and good luck!

I get the same error and I don´t know how to figure out this problem. It took me many hours to notice that I have a init.py at the same direcory as the manage.py from django.

Before:

|-- myproject
|-- __init__.py
|-- manage.py
|-- myproject
|-- ...
|-- app1
|-- models.py
|-- app2
|-- models.py


After:

|-- myproject
|-- manage.py
|-- myproject
|-- ...
|-- app1
|-- models.py
|-- app2
|-- models.py


It is quite confused that you get this "doesn't declare an explicit app_label" error. But deleting this init file solved my problem.

By clicking "Post Your Answer", you acknowledge that you have read our updated terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy, and that your continued use of the website is subject to these policies.