Getting 'DatabaseOperations' object has no attribute 'geo_db_type' error when doing a syncdb

Django Problem Overview

I'm attempting to run heroku run python manage.py syncdb on my GeoDjango app on Heroku, but I get the following error:

AttributeError: 'DatabaseOperations' object has no attribute 'geo_db_type'

All of my research has yielded the same solution: make sure to use django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis as the database engine. Funny thing is that I'm already doing this (and I also have django.contrib.gis in INSTALLED_APPS):

settings.py

DATABASES = {
  'default': {
    'ENGINE': 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis',
    'NAME': '...',
    'HOST': '...',
    'PORT': ...,
    'USER': '...',
    'PASSWORD': '...'
  }
}

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    ...,
    'django.contrib.gis',
)

Is there something else I am missing? Any help is greatly appreciated, below is the full error trace for reference:

Running `python manage.py syncdb` attached to terminal... up, run.1
Creating tables ...
Creating table auth_permission
Creating table auth_group_permissions
Creating table auth_group
Creating table auth_user_user_permissions
Creating table auth_user_groups
Creating table auth_user
Creating table django_content_type
Creating table django_session
Creating table django_site
Creating table django_admin_log
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/app/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 443, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/app/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 382, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/app/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 196, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **options.__dict__)
  File "/app/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 232, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/app/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 371, in handle
    return self.handle_noargs(**options)
  File "/app/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/syncdb.py", line 91, in handle_noargs
    sql, references = connection.creation.sql_create_model(model, self.style, seen_models)
  File "/app/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/creation.py", line 44, in sql_create_model
    col_type = f.db_type(connection=self.connection)
  File "/app/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/gis/db/models/fields.py", line 200, in db_type
    return connection.ops.geo_db_type(self)
AttributeError: 'DatabaseOperations' object has no attribute 'geo_db_type'

Update: I followed the GeoDjango tutorial and Heroku/Django tutorial, and built a simple app that works on my dev machine. I pushed it to Heroku using a custom GeoDjango buildpack, and tried syncdb, but get the same error. Is this an issue with Django/GeoDjango, Heroku, or the buildpack? My dev environment is using PostgreSQL 9.1 and PostGIS 2.0, but Heroku uses 9.0.9 and 1.5, could that be the issue?

Django Solutions

Solution 1 - Django

The OP was using the GeoDjango buildpack, but in case anyone gets here using Geo buildpack and dj_database_url like I was, in settings.py don't forget the last line:

import dj_database_url
DATABASES['default'] = dj_database_url.config()
DATABASES['default']['ENGINE'] = 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis'

UPDATE

dj_database_url directly supports PostGIS. You can do without the last line in the code above if you can change your database URL to start with postgis.

Solution 2 - Django

I got this error when trying to run tests with the test db set like so:

if 'test' in sys.argv:
    DATABASES = {
        'default': {
            'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3', 
            'NAME': '_testdb',
        }
    }

The problem is that the sqlite3 DatabaseOperations object doesn't have the attribute geo_db_type (like the title of this post suggests).

My solution was to change the backend to the sqlite equivalent GIS engine:

        'ENGINE': 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.spatialite'

See the Django docs on GeoDjango installation for all the possible backends, with installation instructions: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/ref/contrib/gis/install/#spatial-database

Solution 3 - Django

I was having the same problem and I had to change:

'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',

to:

'ENGINE': 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis',

Solution 4 - Django

for me helped

add 'django.contrib.gis', to INSTALLED_APPS
change from

DATABASES = { 'default': { 'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',

DATABASES = {
'default': {
    'ENGINE': 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.mysql',

Solution 5 - Django

This post is old but I just wanted to share my answer to this problem. I'm using the Dj Database package, and I didn't know that the connection URL is different when using PostGIS. The connection string for PostGIS is postgis://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/NAME

Hope this helps someone.

Solution 6 - Django

I'm using the Python sample application on stack cedar 14 and the regular Heroku buildpack Heroku/python with PostGIS and had the same problem that my database settings were overwritten with the wrong DB engine, which caused heroku run python manage.py migrate to fail with the above error. Just adding the engine in the settings would not change anything. After some investigation I found out that it is the call to django_heroku.settings(locals()) in the last line of my settings.py which is reverting my changes.

I fixed it by overwriting the engine again like this by adding a line afterwards:

django_heroku.settings(locals())
DATABASES['default']['ENGINE'] = 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis'

Solution 7 - Django

I changed my default db engine from psycopg2 to postgis

PREVIOUSLY

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        ...,
    }
}

NOW

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis',
        ...,
    }
}

Solution 8 - Django

> Settings.py > INSTALLED_APPS

INSTALLED_APPS = [
.
.
'django.contrib.gis'
.
]

> Settings.py > Databases

DATABASES = {
'default': {
    'ENGINE': 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.mysql',
     ...,
    }
}

Solution 9 - Django

In may case I was having this issue because I forgot to comment out the db settings further down in settings.py:

# Update database configuration with $DATABASE_URL.
db_from_env = dj_database_url.config(conn_max_age=500)
DATABASES['default'].update(db_from_env)

These lines were overriding the settings that I had added above. Adding this in case someone else had the same issue.

Solution 10 - Django

The buildpack was the primary culprit here. Instead of using the GeoDjango buildpack listed on Heroku's buildpack page, I used one of it's forks that was updated more recently.

Also, when I do a git push heroku master, Heroku creates a dev database for the app, and when I do a syncdb, my DATABASES setting is ignored and Heroku tries to use the dev database instead... obviously an issue, because dev databases don't/can't have PostGIS installed. So I destroyed the dev database after it was created with the git push (with the correct buildpack), then ran syncdb and it works.

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Gady	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Django	wkschwartz	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Django	bozdoz	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Django	sptramp	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Django	Ryabchenko Alexander	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Django	Mitch W.	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Django	Marius	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Django	Akash Adhikari	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Django	Sushang Agnihotri	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - Django	Tristan	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - Django	Gady	View Answer on Stackoverflow