Can't import value from .env file / Django - django

Question

I got a file .env with 4 values to hide sensitive data:
DATABASE_PASSWD=Password1
SECRET_KEY=Password2
VAR3=Password3
VAR4=Password4
All of above values are properly imported in Django code except the DATABASE_PASSWORD. When the DATABASES configuration is as follows:
# settings.py
from decouple import config
# ...
DB_PASSWORD=config('DATABASE_PASSWD')
SECRET_KEY=config('SECRET_KEY')
VAR3=config('VAR3')
VAR4=config('VAR4')
DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
'NAME': "database_name",
'USER': "database_test_admin",
'PASSWORD': DB_PASSWORD,
'HOST': "localhost",
'PORT': "5432",
}
}
The django outputs:
raise UndefinedValueError('{} not found. Declare it as envvar or define a default value.'.format(option))
decouple.UndefinedValueError: DATABASE_PASSWD not found. Declare it as envvar or define a default value.
If I hardcode password that is just the same in .env the problem is gone - the password is correct since it's my private project. Other variables works well with the same config('VAR#') function in views for example. I have no clue what could be wrong here.

Answer 1

SOLUTION:
The official docs pushed me to try this:
from decouple import config, AutoConfig # <-- AutoConfig added
# ...
config = AutoConfig(search_path='.env') # <-- .env file located next to manage.py
SECRET_KEY = config('SECRET_KEY')
DB_PASSWORD = config('DB_PASSWORD')
VAR3 = config('VAR3')
VAR4 = config('VAR4')
When I provided empty string by the default value the code started to work, however no real string was passed by config() - just the default, which didi not solve anything but made django server running.