Django gives Secret key must not be empty error - django

Question

I am having this issue when I try to run the server in Pycharm. I am new to Django and downloaded this project as a backend for my react application. I have generated a Secret Key using:
from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key
print(get_random_secret_key())
exit()
I added this Secret key to settings.py file as well.
Error Log which I get:
Watching for file changes with StatReloader
Exception in thread django-main-thread:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\zabim\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\threading.py", line 973, in _bootstrap_inner
self.run()
File "C:\Users\zabim\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\threading.py", line 910, in run
self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 64, in wrapper
fn(*args, **kwargs)
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\commands\runserver.py", line 110, in inner_run
autoreload.raise_last_exception()
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 87, in raise_last_exception
raise _exception[1]
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 375, in execute
autoreload.check_errors(django.setup)()
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 64, in wrapper
fn(*args, **kwargs)
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\__init__.py", line 24, in setup
apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS)
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\apps\registry.py", line 122, in populate
app_config.ready()
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\admin\apps.py", line 27, in ready
self.module.autodiscover()
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\admin\__init__.py", line 24, in autodiscover
autodiscover_modules('admin', register_to=site)
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\utils\module_loading.py", line 47, in autodiscover_modules
import_module('%s.%s' % (app_config.name, module_to_search))
File "C:\Users\zabim\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\lib\importlib\__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1030, in _gcd_import
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1007, in _find_and_load
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 986, in _find_and_load_unlocked
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 680, in _load_unlocked
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 850, in exec_module
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 228, in _call_with_frames_removed
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\auth\admin.py", line 6, in <module>
from django.contrib.auth.forms import (
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\auth\forms.py", line 11, in <module>
from django.contrib.auth.tokens import default_token_generator
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\auth\tokens.py", line 117, in <module>
default_token_generator = PasswordResetTokenGenerator()
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\auth\tokens.py", line 18, in __init__
self.secret = self.secret or settings.SECRET_KEY
File "W:\Playlistify-main\Playlistify-main\server\venv\lib\site-packages\django\conf\__init__.py", line 90, in __getattr__
raise ImproperlyConfigured("The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.")
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.

Answer 1

Go to your settings.py
SECRET_KEY = ""
There should already be a value, if not, copy paste the one from the print statement.
Have a look at the different module for the settings, you could have one for local, production and base for example, make sure all of them have a secret key.
Learn about secret key
This is very important to understand, I strongly advise to have a look at the Django Tutorial as this error should be obvious to most beginners in Django