Question :
I’ve deployed Django to Apache via mod_wsgi. Django is running fine when hosted from Apache. However, I’m trying to do some maintenance via manage.py, but when I try and run it, I get the error:
Error: Could not import settings ‘myproject.settings’ (Is it on sys.path?): No module named settings
user@localhost:~$ cd /usr/local/myproject
user@localhost:/usr/local/myproject$ ls
drwxr-xr-x 2 apache apache 4096 2011-09-07 19:38 apache
-rw-r--r-- 1 apache apache 0 2011-05-25 14:52 __init__.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 apache apache 813 2011-09-09 16:56 manage.py
drwxr-xr-x 6 apache apache 4096 2011-09-09 16:43 myapp
-rw-r--r-- 1 apache apache 4992 2011-09-07 19:31 settings.py
drwxr-xr-x 4 apache apache 4096 2011-09-08 20:32 templates
-rw-r--r-- 1 apache apache 1210 2011-09-08 14:49 urls.py
Django seems to be ignoring the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable.
user@localhost:~$ cd /usr/local/myproject
user@localhost:/usr/local/myproject$ export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=settings
user@localhost:/usr/local/myproject$ python manage.py shell
Error: Could not import settings 'myproject.settings' (Is it on sys.path?): No module named settings
user@localhost:/usr/local/myproject$ python
Python 2.6.5 (r265:79063, Apr 16 2010, 13:57:41)
[GCC 4.4.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import settings
>>>
Just to confirm I wasn’t going crazy, I commented out everything inside manage.py except the import settings line, and it ran correctly.
I’ve also tried setting os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'settings' and sys.path.append('/usr/local/myproject') directly at the top of manage.py, to no avail.
What’s going on here? Why is Django using the wrong settings module name? This is driving me crazy.
Answer #1:
This can happen if your root directory name is the same as the name of one of your apps. For example here I have a directory called bar containing a Django project with an app also called bar:
Simons-MacBook-Pro ~/temp
$ cd bar
Simons-MacBook-Pro ~/temp/bar
$ ./manage.py shell
Error: Could not import settings 'bar.settings' (Is it on sys.path?): No module named settings
Simons-MacBook-Pro ~/temp/bar
$ ls -l
total 48
-rw-r--r-- 1 simon staff 0 25 Oct 10:46 __init__.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 simon staff 130 25 Oct 10:46 __init__.pyc
drwxr-xr-x 7 simon staff 238 25 Oct 10:46 bar
-rwxr-xr-x 1 simon staff 503 25 Oct 10:46 manage.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 simon staff 5025 25 Oct 10:46 settings.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 simon staff 2658 25 Oct 10:46 settings.pyc
-rw-r--r-- 1 simon staff 556 25 Oct 10:46 urls.py
Changing the root directory’s name to foo (or anything else other than bar) solves the problem:
Simons-MacBook-Pro ~/temp/bar
$ cd ..
Simons-MacBook-Pro ~/temp
$ mv bar foo
Simons-MacBook-Pro ~/temp
$ cd foo
Simons-MacBook-Pro ~/temp/foo
$ ./manage.py shell
Python 2.7.1 (r271:86832, Jun 16 2011, 16:59:05)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Based on Apple Inc. build 5658) (LLVM build 2335.15.00)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
(InteractiveConsole)
>>>
Answer #2:
I had a similar problem, where the same error was being returned when I tried to run
django-admin.py startproject myapp.
A previous answer here helped me figure it out. The problem was that I had previously pointed DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE to a certain file, which I had later deleted. To fix it, I just removed the pointer with this command:
export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=
Answer #3:
It seems the path to your project isn’t being recognized by wsgi. This has happened to me, and to solve it I added this to the top of my .wsgi file:
import os
import sys
root_path = os.path.abspath(os.path.split(__file__)[0])
sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(root_path, 'project_name'))
sys.path.insert(0, root_path)
Answer #4:
Somehow, if your project folder is the same name as the app that has the settings file in it, and if you have __init__.py in the project root folder, it will mess wsgi. I really dont understand why but removing this file solved this for me.
Answer #5:
If you are using wsgi/uwsgi in production…
I was having the same error:
If you renamed the folder that django startproject created that has setting.py files and wsgi.py , check in the wsgi.py file the line: os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "<your_folder_name>.settings")
In my case i had to rename < your_folder_name> also.
Answer #6:
I had accidentally changed my DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE variable using the echo command: echo DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=mysite.settings
I simply quit virtualenv and activated it again, which restored my settings.
Answer #7:
Though Simon Whitaker’s answer (that a same-name dir is confusing things) is certainly on point, rather than suggesting you change your entire extant dir structure, might I suggest:
Instead of using the “malfunctioning” / ambiguous…
import settings
…use the more specific…
from django.conf import settings
Answer #8:
I had DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE set to “mealer.settings”
(django-env)ali@a-N750JV:~/snap/projects-on-django/Rester$ export -p | grep DJANGO
declare -x DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE="mealer.settings"
which I removed by
ali@ali-N750JV:~/snap/projects-on-django/Rester$ export -n DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE
(django-env)ali@ali-N750JV:~/snap/projects-on-django/Rester$ export -p | grep DJAN
(django-env)ali@ali-N750JV:
export -p | grep DJAN found nothing as you see
this answer is based on answer by Paul Meinshausen
