'ImproperlyConfigured: You must either define the environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() before accessing settings

I was trying to configure my Django project to deploy to Heroku. I am getting the following error and I don't really know how to fix it.

Here is the full traceback and error:

22:46:15 web.1  | Traceback (most recent call last):
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/arbiter.py", line 495, in spawn_worker
22:46:15 web.1  |     worker.init_process()
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/workers/base.py", line 106, in init_process
22:46:15 web.1  |     self.wsgi = self.app.wsgi()
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/app/base.py", line 114, in wsgi
22:46:15 web.1  |     self.callable = self.load()
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/app/wsgiapp.py", line 62, in load
22:46:15 web.1  |     return self.load_wsgiapp()
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/app/wsgiapp.py", line 49, in load_wsgiapp
22:46:15 web.1  |     return util.import_app(self.app_uri)
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/util.py", line 354, in import_app
22:46:15 web.1  |     __import__(module)
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/nirla/wsgi.py", line 12, in <module>
22:46:15 web.1  |     from dj_static import Cling
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/dj_static.py", line 7, in <module>
22:46:15 web.1  |     from django.contrib.staticfiles.handlers import StaticFilesHandler as DebugHandler
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/staticfiles/handlers.py", line 8, in <module>
22:46:15 web.1  |     from django.contrib.staticfiles.views import serve
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/staticfiles/views.py", line 13, in <module>
22:46:15 web.1  |     from django.views import static
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/views/static.py", line 96, in <module>
22:46:15 web.1  |     template_translatable = ugettext_noop("Index of %(directory)s")
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/translation/__init__.py", line 65, in gettext_noop
22:46:15 web.1  |     return _trans.gettext_noop(message)
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/translation/__init__.py", line 52, in __getattr__
22:46:15 web.1  |     if settings.USE_I18N:
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 54, in __getattr__
22:46:15 web.1  |     self._setup(name)
22:46:15 web.1  |   File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 47, in _setup
22:46:15 web.1  |     % (desc, ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE))
22:46:15 web.1  | ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting USE_I18N, but settings are not configured. You must either define the environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() before accessing settings.

Here is my wsgi.py file:

import os
from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
from dj_static import Cling

os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "nirla.settings") #nirla is the name of the project


application = Cling(get_wsgi_application())

And in case it was relevant, my manage.py file:

import os
import sys

    if __name__ == "__main__":
        os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "nirla.settings")
    
        from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line
    
        execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)

Can anyone seem to understand the issue here? And if so, can you be so kind as to explain what is wrong?

Solution 1:^[1]

From The Definitive Guide to Django: Web Development Done Right:

If you’ve used Python before, you may be wondering why we’re running python manage.py shell instead of just python. Both commands will start the interactive interpreter, but the manage.py shell command has one key difference: before starting the interpreter, it tells Django which settings file to use.

Use Case: Many parts of Django, including the template system, rely on your settings, and you won’t be able to use them unless the framework knows which settings to use.

If you’re curious, here’s how it works behind the scenes. Django looks for an environment variable called DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE, which should be set to the import path of your settings.py. For example, DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE might be set to 'mysite.settings', assuming mysite is on your Python path.

When you run python manage.py shell, the command takes care of setting DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE for you.**

Solution 2:^[2]

Django needs your application-specific settings. Since it is already inside your manage.py, just use that. The faster, but perhaps temporary, solution is:

python manage.py shell

Solution 3:^[3]

In my case it was the use of the call_command module that posed a problem.
I added set DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=mysite.settings but it didn't work.

I finally found it:

add these lines at the top of the script, and the order matters.

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

import django
django.setup()

from django.core.management import call_command

Solution 4:^[4]

In my case, it was a Python path issue.

First set your PYTHONPATH
then set DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE
then run django-admin shell command (django-admin dbshell)

(venv) shakeel@workstation:~/project_path$ export PYTHONPATH=/home/shakeel/project_path
(venv) shakeel@workstation:~/project_path$ export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=my_project.settings
(venv) shakeel@workstation:~/project_path$ django-admin dbshell
SQLite version 3.22.0 2018-01-22 18:45:57
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
sqlite>

otherwise python manage.py shell works like charm.

Solution 5:^[5]

If you are here due to error while trying to run daphne on server then here is the answer for you .

Change you asgi.py file like this.

import os
from django.conf.urls import url

os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'mc_backend.settings')

from channels.routing import ProtocolTypeRouter, URLRouter
from django.core.asgi import get_asgi_application
django_asgi_app = get_asgi_application()

from channels.auth import AuthMiddlewareStack   
import api_backend.routing


application = ProtocolTypeRouter({
    "http": django_asgi_app,
    'websocket': AuthMiddlewareStack(
        URLRouter(
            api_backend.routing.websocket_urlpatterns
        )
    )
})

Solution 6:^[6]

Create a .env file that will hold your credentials at the root of your project and leave it out of versioning:

$ echo ".env" >> .gitignore

In the .env file, add the variables (adapt them according to your installation):

$ echo "DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=myproject.settings.production"> .env
#50 caracter random key
$ echo "SECRET_KEY='####'">> .env

To use them, put this on top of your production.py settings file:

import os

env = os.environ.copy()
SECRET_KEY = env['SECRET_KEY']

Publish it to Heroku using this gem: http://github.com/ddollar/heroku-config.git

$ heroku plugins:install git://github.com/ddollar/heroku-config.git
$ heroku config:push

This way you avoid to change virtualenv files.

*Based on this tutorial

Solution 7:^[7]

If you are using the local server, run Django shell using python manage.py shell. It will take you to the Django python environment and you are good to go.

Solution 8:^[8]

I had a wrong way of import.

First I imported models of django without (before I declare that the file use django)

import pika, json, os, django
from products.models import Product

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

But then I changed the import as below and it works (basically declaring file uses django and then importing models and other apps)

import pika, json, os, django

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

from products.models import Product

Solution 9:^[9]

I found this error when I set in admin.py my list_display = ('name',) I changed it to list_display = ('name','date') And it worked.

Solution 10:^[10]

I have used pipenv to manage virtual environment for django project.

SOLUTION

1. pipenv shell
2. python manage.py shell

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution	Source
Solution 1	Community
Solution 2	Remy Lebeau
Solution 3	Zorro
Solution 4	Sabito éŒ†å…Ž stands with Ukraine
Solution 5	Ananthu S Kumar
Solution 6	marcanuy
Solution 7	Arjjun
Solution 8	Himanshu Patel
Solution 9	Sabito éŒ†å…Ž stands with Ukraine
Solution 10	Roman

'ImproperlyConfigured: You must either define the environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() before accessing settings

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