diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 6ef74085..ae38afd3 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ language: python
 sudo: required
 python:
   - "2.7"
-  - "3.5"
   - "3.6"
   - "3.7"
 env:
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 15882fd6..f5322154 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ Requirements
 ============
 
 Sumatra requires Python versions 2.7, 3.4, 3.5 or 3.6. The web interface requires
-Django (>= 1.6 < 1.9) and the django-tagging package.
+Django (>= 1.8) and the django-tagging package.
 Sumatra requires that you keep your own code in a version control
 system (currently Subversion, Mercurial, Git and Bazaar are supported). If you
 are already using Bazaar there is nothing else to install. If you
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.4.txt b/ci/requirements-3.4.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 2976358a..00000000
--- a/ci/requirements-3.4.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-# Additional requirements for Python 3.4
-pyyaml  # this is already in requirements.txt, but pip doesn't allow empty requirements files
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.5.txt b/ci/requirements-3.5.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 9edef4fb..00000000
--- a/ci/requirements-3.5.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-# Additional requirements for Python 3.5
-pyyaml  # this is already in requirements.txt, but pip doesn't allow empty requirements files
diff --git a/ci/requirements.txt b/ci/requirements.txt
index 0dfb59cc..bccc6834 100644
--- a/ci/requirements.txt
+++ b/ci/requirements.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # Base requirements for running Sumatra, for all supported versions of Python
-Django>=1.6, <1.9
+Django>=1.8
 django-tagging>=0.4
 httplib2
 jinja2
diff --git a/doc/developers_guide.txt b/doc/developers_guide.txt
index 097a8b30..65d0aa9b 100644
--- a/doc/developers_guide.txt
+++ b/doc/developers_guide.txt
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Requirements
 ------------
 
     * Python_ 2.7, 3.4, 3.5 or 3.6
-    * Django_ >= 1.6 < 1.9
+    * Django_ >= 1.8
     * django-tagging_ >= 0.3
     * parameters >= 0.2.1
     * nose_ >= 0.11.4
diff --git a/doc/installation.txt b/doc/installation.txt
index 35e2943d..664c665f 100644
--- a/doc/installation.txt
+++ b/doc/installation.txt
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Installing Django
 -----------------
 
 If you wish to use the web interface, you will also need to install Django_
-version 1.6 or later. On Linux, you may be able to do this via your package
+version 1.8 or later. On Linux, you may be able to do this via your package
 management system: see https://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/Distributions.
 
 Otherwise, it is very easy to install manually: see
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8e0b2804..adda6c56 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ def get_tip_revision(self, path=os.getcwd()):
         return repo.head.commit.hexsha[:7]
 
 
-install_requires = ['Django>=1.6, <1.9', 'django-tagging', 'httplib2',
+install_requires = ['Django>=1.8, <2', 'django-tagging', 'httplib2',
                     'docutils', 'jinja2', 'parameters', 'future']
 major_python_version, minor_python_version, _, _, _ = sys.version_info
 if major_python_version < 3 or (major_python_version == 3 and minor_python_version < 4):
diff --git a/sumatra/recordstore/django_store/__init__.py b/sumatra/recordstore/django_store/__init__.py
index e327afb1..73ed7cd0 100644
--- a/sumatra/recordstore/django_store/__init__.py
+++ b/sumatra/recordstore/django_store/__init__.py
@@ -116,10 +116,7 @@ def _create_databases(self):
                 db_file = db['NAME']
                 if not os.path.exists(os.path.dirname(db_file)):
                     os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(db_file))
-            try:
-                management.call_command('migrate', database=label, verbosity=0)
-            except django.core.management.base.CommandError:
-                management.call_command('syncdb', database=label, verbosity=0)
+            management.call_command('migrate', run_syncdb=True, database=label, verbosity=0, interactive=False)
 
     def configure(self):
         settings = django_conf.settings
diff --git a/sumatra/recordstore/django_store/models.py b/sumatra/recordstore/django_store/models.py
index 966cd1d0..cfa8137d 100644
--- a/sumatra/recordstore/django_store/models.py
+++ b/sumatra/recordstore/django_store/models.py
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ def get_or_create_from_sumatra_object(self, obj, using='default'):
         # might be better to specify the list of field names explicitly
         # as an argument to the Manager __init__().
         excluded_fields = ('id', 'record', 'input_to_records', 'output_from_record', 'output_from_record_id')
-        field_names = set(self.model._meta.get_all_field_names()).difference(excluded_fields)
+        field_names = set([f.name for f in self.model._meta.get_fields()]).difference(excluded_fields)
         attributes = {}
         for name in field_names:
             if name == 'metadata':
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ class Meta(object):
         abstract = True
 
     def field_names(self):
-        field_names = self._meta.get_all_field_names()
+        field_names = [f.name for f in self._meta.get_fields()]
         field_names.remove('id')
         field_names.remove('record')
         return field_names