How to create table during Django tests with managed = False

You can use SchemaEditor in TestCase.setUp method to explicitly create models with managed = False.

# models.py

from django.db import models


class Unmanaged(models.Model):
    foo = models.TextField()

    class Meta:
        # This model is not managed by Django
        managed = False
        db_table="unmanaged_table"

And in your tests:

# tests.py

from django.db import connection
from django.test import TestCase

from myapp.models import Unmanaged


class ModelsTestCase(TestCase):
    def setUp(self):
        super().setUp()

        with connection.schema_editor() as schema_editor:
            schema_editor.create_model(Unmanaged)

            if (
                Unmanaged._meta.db_table
                not in connection.introspection.table_names()
            ):
                raise ValueError(
                    "Table `{table_name}` is missing in test database.".format(
                        table_name=Unmanaged._meta.db_table
                    )
                )

    def tearDown(self):
        super().tearDown()

        with connection.schema_editor() as schema_editor:
            schema_editor.delete_model(Unmanaged)

    def test_unmanaged_model(self):
        with self.assertNumQueries(num=3):
            self.assertEqual(0, Unmanaged.objects.all().count())
            Unmanaged.objects.create()
            self.assertEqual(1, Unmanaged.objects.all().count())