Handling Django SECRET_KEY ImproperlyConfigured

In this article, we will go through the common reasons and solutions for the “django core exceptions Improperly Configured” error in Django project. First, let’s understand the problem and then we will look for possible fixes.

What is Django SECRET_KEY ImproperlyConfigured?

The improperly configured exception in Django occurs when there is an error in your project’s settings. This can occur for various reasons like missing some settings, incorrect settings, incompatible apps that you created in the project, etc.

Syntax: django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.

Suppose you are developing a Django project and suddenly encounter this error. this prevents your project from running properly. The error message may vary but the improperly configured exception shows an issue in your settings file.

How to solve ‘django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured ‘?

To fix the error first make sure you did this previous thing correctly.

• Check virtual environment is activated. Recreate and activate if needed.
• Make sure all dependencies are installed in a virtual environment.
• Upgrade pip if needed.

• If you have created .env file make sure it is correctly imported and used in project.
• Check for syntax errors in settings.py file.
• Check each sub-setting like INSTALLED_APPS, TEMPLATES, MIDDLEWARES, DATABASES for any missing settings.

Lets discuss how you can practically solve this problem. Steps are properly listed under each solution make sure you follow it properly.

Add / Correct Missing Settings

These are the basic required settings comes in boilerplate while making django project. Match it and check if you have missed any setting or check for any spelling mistakes.

Python3

from pathlib import Path

BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
SECRET_KEY = 'django-insecure-o0nex4pd=)4xw07ww5w5a_gwz1pvavrs=vmd8!5^xg1f5ol*$!'

ALLOWED_HOSTS = []

# Make sure you have listed all created application under
# django project
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'app'
]

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
]

ROOT_URLCONF = 'csrfprotect.urls'

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': ['templates'], # check directory path and its spelling
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'csrfprotect.wsgi.application'

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': BASE_DIR / 'db.sqlite3', # check BASE_DIR path.
    }
}


AUTH_PASSWORD_VALIDATORS = [
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.UserAttributeSimilarityValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.MinimumLengthValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.CommonPasswordValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.NumericPasswordValidator',
    },
]


LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'

STATIC_URL = '/static/' # Checks static folder and its path.
DEFAULT_AUTO_FIELD = 'django.db.models.BigAutoField'

Give Permissions to Django

Sometimes Django does not have read access of the project directories. To give read/write permission in command prompt you will have to enter below command and run it.

icacls <folder_path> /grant Users:F

folder_path: mention the django project folder path.

Migrate the Project Again

If the issue still continues. then follow below steps to re-migrate fresh. this can sometimes fix configuration issues:

• Delete Database
• Delete Migrations folder present in all apps you created under django-project.
• Run python manage.py runserver.
• Run python manage.py makemigrations
• Run python manage.py migrate.

By following this steps your migration files and database will be recreated. These all possible solutions for Inproperly configured error in django. Please follow each step carefully to get rid of the error.