There are multiple possible reasons for django not detecting what to migrate during the makemigrations command.

# 1. migration folder You need a migrations package in your app.
# 2. INSTALLED_APPS You need your app to be specified in the INSTALLED_APPS .dict
# 3. Verbosity start by running `makemigrations -v` 3 for verbosity. This might shed some light on the problem.
# 4. Full path In INSTALLED_APPS it is recommended to specify the full module app config path 'apply.apps.MyAppConfig'
# 5. --settings you might want to make sure the correct settings file is set: `manage.py makemigrations --settings mysite.settings`
# 6. specify app name explicitly put the app name in `manage.py makemigrations myapp` - that narrows down the migrations for the app alone and helps you isolate the problem.
# 7. model meta check you have the right app_label in your model meta

# 8. Debug django debug django core script. makemigrations command is pretty much straight forward. Here's how to do it in pycharm. change your script definition accordingly (ex: `makemigrations --traceback myapp`)