Question

I have a model created called “users” and i created a new migration to add some columns to the users table. Now when i run rake db:migrate, I get the error below b/c it’s trying to create the users table again

$ rake db:migrate
==  DeviseCreateUsers: migrating ==============================================
-- create_table(:users)
rake aborted!
An error has occurred, all later migrations canceled:

Mysql::Error: Table 'users' already exists: CREATE TABLE `users`.....

Why is it trying to create the table again?

Here’s the command i used to create the new migration

$ rails generate migration AddDetailsToUsers home_phone:decimal cell_phone:decimal work_phone:decimal birthday:date home_address:text work_address:text position:string company:string

The new migration looks like this:

class AddDetailsToUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    add_column :users, :home_phone, :decimal
    add_column :users, :cell_phone, :decimal
    add_column :users, :work_phone, :decimal
    add_column :users, :birthday, :date
    add_column :users, :home_address, :text
    add_column :users, :work_address, :text
    add_column :users, :position, :string
    add_column :users, :company, :string
  end
end

EDIT

20120511224920_devise_create_users

class DeviseCreateUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table(:users) do |t|
      ## Database authenticatable
      t.string :email,              :null => false, :default => ""
      t.string :username,           :null => false, :default => ""
      t.string :encrypted_password, :null => false, :default => ""

      ## Recoverable
      t.string   :reset_password_token
      t.datetime :reset_password_sent_at

      ## Rememberable
      t.datetime :remember_created_at

      ## Trackable
      t.integer  :sign_in_count, :default => 0
      t.datetime :current_sign_in_at
      t.datetime :last_sign_in_at
      t.string   :current_sign_in_ip
      t.string   :last_sign_in_ip

      ## Encryptable
      # t.string :password_salt

      ## Confirmable
      # t.string   :confirmation_token
      # t.datetime :confirmed_at
      # t.datetime :confirmation_sent_at
      # t.string   :unconfirmed_email # Only if using reconfirmable

      ## Lockable
      # t.integer  :failed_attempts, :default => 0 # Only if lock strategy is :failed_attempts
      # t.string   :unlock_token # Only if unlock strategy is :email or :both
      # t.datetime :locked_at

      ## Token authenticatable
      # t.string :authentication_token


      t.timestamps
    end

    add_index :users, :email,                :unique => true
    add_index :users, :reset_password_token, :unique => true
    # add_index :users, :confirmation_token,   :unique => true
    # add_index :users, :unlock_token,         :unique => true
    # add_index :users, :authentication_token, :unique => true
  end
end

20120619023856_add_name_to_users

class AddNameToUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    add_column :users, :first_name, :string
    add_column :users, :last_name, :string
  end
end

20121031174720_add_details_to_users.rb

class AddDetailsToUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    add_column :users, :home_phone, :decimal
    add_column :users, :cell_phone, :decimal
    add_column :users, :work_phone, :decimal
    add_column :users, :birthday, :date
    add_column :users, :home_address, :text
    add_column :users, :work_address, :text
    add_column :users, :position, :string
    add_column :users, :company, :string
  end
end

Answer 1

Rails keeps track of the migrations in the “schema_migrations” table of your database. Unless there is an entry for “20120511224920”, which is the Devise migration, it will attempt to run it again, which it appears to already exists.

You can add that manually to the table if that is the case.