Django DB Settings 'Improperly Configured' Error

Question

Django (1.5) is workin' fine for me, but when I fire up the Python interpreter (Python 3) to check some things, I get the weirdest error when I try importing - from django.contrib.auth.models import User -

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/dist-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 36, in _setup
    settings_module = os.environ[ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE]
  File "/usr/lib/python3.2/os.py", line 450, in __getitem__
    value = self._data[self.encodekey(key)]
KeyError: b'DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/dist-packages/django/contrib/auth/models.py", line 8, in <module>
    from django.db import models
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/dist-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 11, in <module>
    if settings.DATABASES and DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS not in settings.DATABASES:
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/dist-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 52, in __getattr__
    self._setup(name)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/dist-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 45, in _setup
    % (desc, ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE))

django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting DATABASES, 
  but settings are not configured. You must either define the environment 
  variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() 
  before accessing settings.

How could it be improperly configured, when it works fine outside the Python interpreter? In my Django settings, the DATABASES settings are:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2', # Add 'postgresql_psycopg2', 'mysql', 'sqlite3' or 'oracle'.
        'NAME': 'django_db', # Or path to database file if using sqlite3.
        # The following settings are not used with sqlite3:
        'USER': 'zamphatta',
        'PASSWORD': 'mypassword91',
        'HOST': '', # Empty for localhost through domain sockets or '127.0.0.1' for localhost through TCP.
        'PORT': '', # Set to empty string for default.
    }
}

...how is this improperly configured?

Came across this when setting up a new project. I found it helpful to do `unset DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE`. I was running into an issue where I had set the env var in my .bashrc — fncomp, Oct 29 '15 at 00:08

score 266 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 13 '16 at 12:23

266

You can't just fire up Python and check things, Django doesn't know what project you want to work on. You have to do one of these things:

Use python manage.py shell
Use django-admin.py shell --settings=mysite.settings (or whatever settings module you use)
Set DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable in your OS to mysite.settings

(This is removed in Django 1.6) Use setup_environ in the python interpreter:

from django.core.management import setup_environ
from mysite import settings

setup_environ(settings)

Naturally, the first way is the easiest.

edited Dec 13 '16 at 12:23

the

21,007
11
68
101

answered Mar 21 '13 at 19:42

Pavel Anossov

60,842
14
151
124

Thanks! That wasn't quite clear to me in the documentation, or maybe I read it & forgot by the time I needed to do it. – Zamphatta Mar 24 '13 at 00:13
6

Oddly it can't seem to find the 'mysite.settings' file, but I can see it sitting right there as mysite/settings.py. Ugh! I'm beginning to hate Django. – Zamphatta Mar 24 '13 at 00:28
completly strange to me too, because the function has some kind of static functionallaty so why setup this settings... – Dukeatcoding Aug 05 '13 at 13:16
@Pavel Anossov in 1.6.2 none of these works >>> from django.core.management import setup_environ Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in and sayth@sayth-TravelMate-5740G:~/Documents/Projects/FirstBlog$ django-admin.py shell --settings=FirstBlog.settings / ImportError: Could not import settings 'FirstBlog.settings' (Is it on sys.path? Is there an import error in the settings file?): No module named FirstBlog.settings ImportError: cannot import name setup_environ – sayth Feb 15 '14 at 10:45
3

Yes, `setup_environ` is removed in 1.6, but `--settings` should work. Are you sure your settings are in further `FirstBlog.settings`, and not just in `settings` in the current directory? – Pavel Anossov Feb 15 '14 at 11:25
21

None of the above worked for me, but this one did: `$ export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE="my_project.settings"` – Thumbz Jun 26 '14 at 07:05
Oh, and one of these `export PYTHONPATH="$PYTHONPATH:'pwd'"` – Thumbz Jun 26 '14 at 07:19
24

In **PyCharm** the place to do this is Run | Edit Configurations | (e.g. Unittests in project) | Configuration | Environment | Environment variables: `DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=(project directory name).settings` – Bob Stein May 04 '15 at 10:48
this has been happening to me now that I split time w django and flask lol – codyc4321 May 04 '16 at 16:33
I'm using Django 1.11 and the part of this answer featuring `setup_environ` doesn't work for me, but this question and answer does: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15048963/alternative-to-the-deprecated-setup-environ-for-one-off-django-scripts – n8sty Jul 28 '17 at 06:19
@Thumbz `export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE="my_project.settings"` where did you put this? – ziggy Jul 17 '18 at 18:39
Any update on this thread? None of this works for me. – sully_r Sep 21 '21 at 01:41

score 41 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 11 '15 at 02:01

41

In your python shell/ipython do:

from django.conf import settings

settings.configure()

answered Jul 11 '15 at 02:01

Montaro

9,240
6
29
30

11

`Apps aren't loaded yet.` – Danil May 31 '18 at 12:53

MagTun · Answer 3 · 2019-07-11T08:19:32.120

26

In 2017 with django 1.11.5 and python 3.6 (from the comment this also works with Python 2.7):

import django
import os
os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "mysite.settings")
django.setup()

The .py in which you put this code should be in mysite (the parent one)

edited Jul 11 '19 at 08:19

answered Oct 01 '17 at 19:28

MagTun

5,619
5
63
104

Thanks a lot, none of the other solutions have worked in my case – evnica Aug 03 '18 at 11:45
Work with python 2.7 too – Александр Aug 14 '18 at 08:40
This `.py` should be placed at the **root**, which means it is along with manage.py. How do I place it inside random folders? – anonymous Jul 11 '19 at 06:54
1

It should be noted that this will only work if you put it at the top of your file, if you put it inside of something like `if __name__ == "__main__":` it won't work correctly :) – Josh Correia Apr 16 '20 at 23:23

score 12 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 07 '20 at 13:06

12

On Django 1.9, I tried django-admin runserver and got the same error, but when I used python manage.py runserver I got the intended result. This may solve this error for a lot of people!

edited Jan 07 '20 at 13:06

Mohideen bin Mohammed

18,813
10
112
118

answered Sep 22 '16 at 18:05

Jacob Young

123
1
5

same, on django 1.10, but while trying to run the command loaddata – amchugh89 Nov 18 '16 at 17:56

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 12 '17 at 21:02

In my case, I got this when trying to run Django tests through PyCharm. I think it is because PyCharm does not load the initial Django project settings, i.e. those that manage.py shell runs initially. One can add them to the start of the testing script or just run the tests using manage.py test.

Versions:

Python 3.5 (in virtualenv)
PyCharm 2016.3.2 Professional
Django 1.10

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 17 '16 at 20:42

3

in my own case in django 1.10.1 running on python2.7.11, I was trying to start the server using django-admin runserver instead of manage.py runserver in my project directory.

answered Sep 17 '16 at 20:42

Dev

411
3
6

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 21 '19 at 07:42

0

For people using IntelliJ, with these settings I was able to query from the shell (on windows).

answered Oct 21 '19 at 07:42

Stef Van Looveren

302
1
5
15

Django DB Settings 'Improperly Configured' Error

7 Answers7

Linked