manage.py syncdb fails on Windows 7

Question

I am trying to build my first Django app but I can't get the database to sync properly in the initial attempt.

I get the following error:

c:\mysite>manage.py syncdb
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\mysite\manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 443, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 382, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 261, in fetch_command
    klass = load_command_class(app_name, subcommand)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 69, in load_command_class
    module = import_module('%s.management.commands.%s' % (app_name, name))
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\utils\importlib.py", line 35, in import_module
    __import__(name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\commands\syncdb.py", line 8, in <module>
    from django.core.management.sql import custom_sql_for_model, emit_post_sync_signal
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\sql.py", line 6, in <module>
    from django.db import models
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\__init__.py", line 40, in <module>
    backend = load_backend(connection.settings_dict['ENGINE'])
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\__init__.py", line 34, in __getattr__
    return getattr(connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS], item)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\utils.py", line 92, in __getitem__
    backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE'])
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\utils.py", line 24, in load_backend
    return import_module('.base', backend_name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\utils\importlib.py", line 35, in import_module
    __import__(name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\postgresql_psycopg2\base.py", line 13, in <module>
    from django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2.creation import DatabaseCreation
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\postgresql_psycopg2\creation.py", line 1, in <module>
    import psycopg2.extensions
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\psycopg2\__init__.py", line 67, in <module>
    from psycopg2._psycopg import BINARY, NUMBER, STRING, DATETIME, ROWID
ImportError: DLL load failed: %1 is not a valid Win32 application.

What am I doing wrong?

I've installed Python 2.7, Postgres 9.1.3.1, psycopg 2.4.5 (matching 2.7 & 9.1.3).

Answer 1

ImportError: DLL load failed: %1 is not a valid Win32 application.

Makes it seem that the architecture of your machine and Python/Postgres/psycopg don't match up. For example if you're using a 32-bit architecture but tried installing the 64-bit code.

Check this post as another example of someone who had the same problem. This seems like it might actually be a python version issue. Try installing python with the other version than you're using.