My environment: Windows 10, Python 3.6, Django 1.11.4., PyMySQL 0.6.1, MySQL Server 5.7 on Windows

How to make it work:

1. Install PyMySQL version 0.7.11 (https://github.com/PyMySQL/PyMySQL/): you can install it either by using pip, i.e. : pip install PyMySQL or by manually downloading the package; there is a good documentation on their website on how to do that.
2. Open your Django App __init__.py and paste the following lines:

   import pymysql
   pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb() 
   

3. Now, open settings.py and make sure your DATABASE property looks like this:

   DATABASES = {
      'default': {
          'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
          'NAME': 'mydb',
          'USER': 'dbuser',
          'PASSWORD': 'dbpassword',
          'HOST': 'dbhost',
          'PORT': '3306'
       }
   }
   

4. That’s it, you should be able to execute python manage.py syncdb to init your MySQL DB; see the sample output below:

   Creating tables ...
   Creating table django_admin_log
   Creating table auth_permission
   Creating table auth_group_permissions
   ...
   ...
   Creating table socialaccount_socialtoken
   
   You just installed Django's auth system, which means you don't have any superusers defined.
   ...
   

5. you should be able to execute python manage.py migrate to creates any necessary database tables according
   to the database settings in your mysite/settings.py file and the database migrations shipped with the app; see the sample output below:

   
   Operations to perform:
     Apply all migrations: admin, auth, contenttypes, sessions
   Running migrations:
     Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK
     Applying auth.0001_initial... OK
     Applying admin.0001_initial... OK
     Applying admin.0002_logentry_remove_auto_add... OK
     Applying contenttypes.0002_remove_content_type_name... OK
     Applying auth.0002_alter_permission_name_max_length... OK
     Applying auth.0003_alter_user_email_max_length... OK
     Applying auth.0004_alter_user_username_opts... OK
     Applying auth.0005_alter_user_last_login_null... OK
     Applying auth.0006_require_contenttypes_0002... OK
     Applying auth.0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages... OK
     Applying auth.0008_alter_user_username_max_length... OK
     Applying sessions.0001_initial... OK