--- slug: "django-unmanaged-model-unit-test" title: "How to Unit Test a Django Model with managed = False" description: "When using Django, setting `Meta: managed = False` in a model can sometimes lead to a `ProgrammingError` during unit tests from other apps when attempting operations such as `create()`. This is a memo on how to address this issue." url: "https://www.ytyng.com/en/blog/django-unmanaged-model-unit-test" publish_date: "2018-02-05T08:02:06Z" created: "2018-02-05T08:02:06Z" updated: "2026-02-27T11:57:17.076Z" categories: ["Django"] keywords: "" featured_image_url: "https://media.ytyng.com/resize/20230812/6a1df632407e4386a0cc35d55ac4add3.png.webp?width=768" has_video: false has_music: false video_urls: [] music_urls: [] lang: "en" --- # How to Unit Test a Django Model with managed = False

In Django, when you set Meta: managed = False on a model, you may encounter the following error during unit tests from other apps when trying to perform operations like create():

django.db.utils.ProgrammingError: (1146, "Table 'your_app.your_model' doesn't exist")

This error often occurs when you attempt to test a model created using ./manage.py inspectdb.

In such cases,

Simplifying the Testing of Unmanaged Database Models in Django | Caktus Group
provides a workaround, but

you can also try the following in your your_app/tests/__init__.py:

import sys

if 'test' in sys.argv:
    # For testing
    from ..models import YourModel

    YourModel._meta.managed = True

Writing this in tests/__init__.py should be sufficient.