EF core not creating tables on migrate method

So I fought with this for a long time and I couldn't figure it out. My migrations are in the application project while my DbContext was in another.

When creating the options for the context you want to apply the migrations to you need to specify the MigrationAssembly.

serviceCollection.AddDbContext<YourContext>(options => options.UseSqlServer(_configuration.GetConnectionString("ConnectionString"), b => b.MigrationsAssembly("Your.Assembly")));

context.Database.Migrate() in itself does not generate migrations. Instead, it processes your created migrations.

For each database change, you should call Add-Migration {sensibleName}.

Your startup class would continue to call context.Database.Migrate() which will check your database and process any outstanding migrations.

For example once you have created your database, a general rule is to call Add-Migration Initial. Calling context.Database.Migrate() once will check your database exists, create it if not, check if Initial migration is applied, and apply it if not.

If you then call Add-Migration SmallChange, the same will happen on next startup, similar to the following:

1. Does database exist? Yes
2. Has migration Initial been applied? Yes
3. Has migration SmallChange been applied? No
4. Apply Migration SmallChange

Your first migration should look a little something like this:

public partial class Initial : Migration
{
    protected override void Up(MigrationBuilder migrationBuilder)
    {
        migrationBuilder.CreateTable(
            name: "HelloWorld",
            columns: table => new
            {
                Id = table.Column<int>(nullable: false)
                    .Annotation("SqlServer:ValueGenerationStrategy", SqlServerValueGenerationStrategy.IdentityColumn),
                MyString = table.Column<string>(nullable: true),
            });
    }
}

If your migration doesn't look like that, it may be that your DbContext isn't correctly configured. If your tables still aren't being applied, try running the database update from your Package Manager Console and see what exactly is happening with Update-Database -Verbose