MigrateDatabaseToLatestVersion not executed

Question

I can't figure out why my latest migration is not getting executed automatically on application startup (or at least on first access of the database context). I used to run update-database manually in development, but I want to test whether it will upgrade automatically on my hosted test environment.

In Application_Start():

Database.SetInitializer<FepazoContext>(
    new MigrateDatabaseToLatestVersion<FepazoContext, FepazoConfiguration>())

In FepazoConfiguration:

internal sealed class FepazoConfiguration : 
    DbMigrationsConfiguration<Fepazo.Models.FepazoContext>
{
    public FepazoConfiguration()
    {
        AutomaticMigrationsEnabled = true;
    }
}

I even added this to the constructor of FepazoContext:

public FepazoContext() : base("DefaultConnection")
{
    Database.Initialize(false);
}

Some extra information:

• The migration was automatically created through add-migration and looks ok.
• When I query the __MigrationHistory table, I can see that the migration is not yet 'recorded' as executed.
• I verified that the initializer or the AutomaticMigrationsEnabled setting isn't overridden in Web.config file.
• Breakpoints in FepazoContext constructor and the FepazoConfiguration are getting hit.

Am I forgetting something ? Can I dig deeper to find out where it goes wrong ?

Updates

Passing True to Database.Initialize to try and force the migration also has no effect. Database.CompatibleWithModel(true) returns false - so the system detects there is a difference, however it does not execute the pending migration!

public FepazoContext() : base("DefaultConnection")
{
    if (!Database.CompatibleWithModel(true))
    {
        // This is executed (each time the code enters)
        Database.Initialize(true);
    }
}

Workaround

As a workaround, I call DbMigrator.Update() explicitly right after setting the initializer. That does the trick, although I'd still like to know why it doesn't work automatically...

protected void Application_Start()
{
    // <...>
    Database.SetInitializer<FepazoContext>(
        new MigrateDatabaseToLatestVersion<FepazoContext, FepazoConfiguration>());
    var dbMigrator = new DbMigrator(new FepazoConfiguration());
    dbMigrator.Update();
    // <...>
}

Answer 1

According to another answer on here the initializer doesn't run until there is some interaction with the database. The answer explains how to force the initializer to run immediately.