Fix InconsistentMigrationHistory: Migration admin.0001_initial is applied before its dependency accounts.0001_initial on database 'default' in Django

This error means a migration was applied out of order, usually because a custom user model was added after Django's admin migrations already ran. Fix it by resetting the migration state: clear the django_migrations table for the conflicting app, fake-apply the dependencies in order, then run migrate again.

Reading the Stack Trace

Here's what each line means:

• File "/venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/migrate.py", line 334, in check_consistent_history: Django checks that all migration dependencies were applied in the correct order before running new migrations.
• File "/venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/migrate.py", line 97, in handle: The migrate command's main handler calls the consistency check before applying any pending migrations.
• raise InconsistentMigrationHistory(: The admin app's migration depends on your custom user model's migration, but the admin migration was applied first.

Common Causes

# settings.py — added too late
AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'accounts.CustomUser'

# accounts/models.py
from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractUser

class CustomUser(AbstractUser):
    phone = models.CharField(max_length=20, blank=True)

# Copied production DB to local dev
$ pg_dump prod_db | psql local_db
$ python manage.py migrate
# Fails because local code has different migration graph

# accounts/migrations/0001_squashed_0005.py
class Migration(migrations.Migration):
    replaces = [
        ('accounts', '0001_initial'),
        ('accounts', '0002_add_phone'),
    ]
    dependencies = []  # Missing dependency on auth.0001_initial

The Fix

The cleanest fix in development is to drop the database and re-run migrations with the custom user model configured from the start. In production, you must carefully clear the conflicting rows from the django_migrations table and fake-apply them in the correct order.

# settings.py — AUTH_USER_MODEL was set after running migrate
AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'accounts.CustomUser'

# Running: python manage.py migrate
# Raises InconsistentMigrationHistory

# 1. Drop and recreate the database (development only)
$ dropdb myproject_db && createdb myproject_db

# 2. Ensure AUTH_USER_MODEL is set BEFORE first migrate
# settings.py
AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'accounts.CustomUser'

# 3. Run migrations fresh
$ python manage.py migrate

Testing the Fix

import pytest
from django.core.management import call_command
from django.test import TestCase


class TestMigrations(TestCase):
    def test_migrations_are_consistent(self):
        """Ensure no migration conflicts exist."""
        try:
            call_command('migrate', '--check', verbosity=0)
        except SystemExit as e:
            if e.code != 0:
                pytest.fail('Unapplied migrations detected')

    def test_no_missing_migrations(self):
        """Ensure all model changes have migrations."""
        try:
            call_command('makemigrations', '--check', '--dry-run', verbosity=0)
        except SystemExit as e:
            if e.code != 0:
                pytest.fail('Model changes without migrations detected')

Run your tests:

pytest

Pushing Through CI/CD

git checkout -b fix/django-migration-inconsistency,git add accounts/migrations/ settings.py,git commit -m "fix: resolve migration dependency ordering for custom user model",git push origin fix/django-migration-inconsistency

Your CI config should look something like this:

name: CI
on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    services:
      postgres:
        image: postgres:15
        env:
          POSTGRES_DB: test_db
          POSTGRES_USER: postgres
          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
        ports:
          - 5432:5432
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'
          cache: 'pip'
      - run: pip install -r requirements.txt
      - run: python manage.py migrate --check
      - run: pytest --tb=short -q

The Full Manual Process: 18 Steps

Here's every step you just went through to fix this one bug:

1. Notice the error alert or see it in your monitoring tool
2. Open the error dashboard and read the stack trace
3. Identify the file and line number from the stack trace
4. Open your IDE and navigate to the file
5. Read the surrounding code to understand context
6. Reproduce the error locally
7. Identify the root cause
8. Write the fix
9. Run the test suite locally
10. Fix any failing tests
11. Write new tests covering the edge case
12. Run the full test suite again
13. Create a new git branch
14. Commit and push your changes
15. Open a pull request
16. Wait for code review
17. Merge and deploy to production
18. Monitor production to confirm the error is resolved

Total time: 30-60 minutes. For one bug.

pip install bugstack

import bugstack

bugstack.init(api_key=os.environ["BUGSTACK_API_KEY"])

Deploying the Fix (Manual Path)

1. Run the full test suite locally to confirm migrations apply cleanly.
2. Open a pull request with the migration fix.
3. Wait for CI checks including the migrate --check step to pass.
4. Have a teammate review and approve the PR.
5. Merge to main and verify the deployment in staging before promoting to production.

Frequently Asked Questions