id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
36291	"ManyToManyField empty when setting related_name and related_query_name  to ""+"""	Hayder Mustafa		"I’ve encountered an issue in my Django project where using the following configuration in a ManyToManyField causes the field to return an empty queryset—even though the underlying join table contains records. Notably, this bug appears to be intermittent; sometimes the field behaves as expected, while other times it consistently returns an empty queryset.


{{{
move_lines = models.ManyToManyField(
    ""accounting.AccountMoveLine"",
    verbose_name=""Move Lines"",
    related_name=""+"",
    related_query_name=""+"",
    blank=True,
)
}}}


Steps to Reproduce:

Define a model with a ManyToManyField that includes related_name=""+"" and related_query_name=""+"" (to disable reverse relations).

Create and save related records so that there are entries in the join table.

Query the field using instance.move_lines.all().

Observe that the queryset is empty despite the related records existing. Note that the bug does not occur consistently—there are occasions where the field returns the expected records.

Expected Behavior:
The field should return all associated records when queried, regardless of the reverse relation being disabled.

Actual Behavior:
When related_name and related_query_name are set to ""+"", instance.move_lines.all() sometimes returns an empty queryset even though related records exist. Removing these attributes (thus allowing Django to generate default reverse names) consistently resolves the issue.

Additional Context:
This appears to be an issue where disabling the reverse relationship by setting the related names to ""+"" intermittently interferes with the ORM’s ability to construct the proper join, resulting in an empty result set on the forward lookup. Has anyone else experienced this behavior, or is there a known workaround or fix for this issue?

Thanks in advance for any help or insights!

"	Bug	closed	Database layer (models, ORM)	5.2	Normal	worksforme		Hayder Mustafa	Unreviewed	0	0	0	0	0	0