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
36800	Issue with ManyToManyField renaming	Josik	Clifford Gama	"Since Django 6.0, using Postgres 16 database, when a ManyToManyField is renamed, it cannot be access anymore.


Models before field renaming:
{{{
from django.db import models


class Book(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)


class Author(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField()
    books = models.ManyToManyField(Book)

}}}

In Postgres database I have the following table for the m2m relation **my_app_author_books**.



I then renamed the m2m field ""books"" to ""volumes"":


{{{
from django.db import models


class Book(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)


class Author(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField()
    volumes = models.ManyToManyField(Book)
}}}

This generates the following migration:


{{{
# Generated by Django 6.0 on 2025-12-15 10:04

from django.db import migrations


class Migration(migrations.Migration):

    dependencies = [
        ('my_app', '0001_initial'),
    ]

    operations = [
        migrations.RenameField(
            model_name='author',
            old_name='books',
            new_name='volumes',
        ),
    ]
}}}

In Postgres database I still have the following table for the m2m relation **my_app_author_books**. The table was not renamed to **my_app_author_volumes** which was the case in Django 5.2.

Maybe this is a new behaviour but when I get all instances of volumes, in shell_plus:

{{{author_instance.volumes.all()}}}
gives
{{{
ProgrammingError: relation ""my_app_author_volumes"" does not exist
LINE 1: ...y_app_book"".""title"" FROM ""my_app_book"" INNER JOIN ""my_app_au...
}}}

Migrations were played

**python manage.py showmigrations** gives:
{{{
my_app
 [X] 0001_initial
 [X] 0002_rename_books_author_volumes
}}}
"	Bug	closed	Database layer (models, ORM)	6.0	Release blocker	fixed		Ryan P Kilby	Ready for checkin	1	0	0	0	0	0