Why do I get a different result from `getattr` and a direct attribute call?

attr_wtf.py

# function being called
# Use case is within a migration

# apps = `from django.apps import apps` -- within a migration
# model_name = str lowercase model name 

def blob_to_file(apps, model_name, text_field_name, file_field_name):
    """
    Upload existing TextField json blobs to files.
    """
    model = apps.get_model("answers", model_name)
    for obj in model.objects.all():
        blob = getattr(obj, text_field_name)
        if not blob:
            blob = '{}'

        file_field = getattr(model, file_field_name)
        f = StringIO()
        f.write(blob)
        f.seek(0)
        try:
            file_field.field.save('{}.json'.format(obj.pk), File(f), save=True)
        except Exception as e:
            print(e.message)
            import ipdb
            ipdb.set_trace()

        obj.save()
        f.close()



# output from use within ipdb
"""
ipdb> file_field_name
u'answers_file'
ipdb> file_field = getattr(model, file_field_name)
ipdb> file_field.save('{}.json'.format(obj.pk), File(f), save=True)
*** AttributeError: 'FileDescriptor' object has no attribute 'save'
ipdb> obj.answers_file.save('{}.json'.format(obj.pk), File(f), save=True)
ipdb> obj.answers_file == getattr(model, 'answers_file')
False
"""

Did you ever figure out the answer? I'm running into this now =)

I figured it out after playing around -- I realized that in this line:

" file_field = getattr(model, file_field_name)"

model needs to equal the model-object, not the imported model.