[Fixed]-Django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Set the SECRET_KEY environment variable

The .env file should be in the same directory as settings.py

Solved it!!

In the .env file remove the spaces between assignment operator and var, and between value and assignment operator.
Like:

SECRET_KEY=my_secret_key_value
DEBUG=True

First, install Django-environ like this

pip install django-environ

next, import environs in your settings.py like this

import os
import environ
from pathlib import Path
from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured

# Build paths inside the project like this: BASE_DIR / 'subdir'.
BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent

# Quick-start development settings - unsuitable for production
# See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.2/howto/deployment/checklist/

# SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
env = environ.Env()
environ.Env.read_env()


def get_env_variable(var_name):
try:
    return os.environ[var_name]
except KeyError:
    error_msg = "set the %s environment variable" % var_name
    raise ImproperlyConfigured(error_msg)


SECRET_KEY = get_env_variable('SECRET_KEY')

it is the normal Django settings file, what you did is import os, environ, ImproperlyConfigured from the exception, write the function get_env_variable and call it against the SECRET_KEY

next, create a .env file in the same directory as your settings.py file with this content

SECRET_KEY=django-insecure-b)8xiyg09+9)e4ko!o_*%5am=5(%=-%uvo5g*618619)8xcwfa

replace the secret key string with your own.
you can reference this material

1. First Create .env file in the same directory as the settings

2. Second, remove any space between variable and key-value (i.e
   KEY=my_key)

   import environ
   
   env = environ.Env()
   environ.Env.read_env(os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'somepath/.env')) #<-- where ever your .env lies inside project directory
   SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get('somekeyInsidenvFile',env('somekeyInsidenvFile')) #
   

Actually there is a simple solution.

settings.py

import os
import environ

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))

env = environ.Env()

# read th .env file
environ.Env.read_env(env_file=str(BASE_DIR) + '/.env')    

SECRET_KEY = env('SECRET_KEY')

DEBUG = env('DEBUG')

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']
.....

.env file

SECRET_KEY=secret_key_value
DEBUG=True

Finally, don’t use spaces before and after equals in the .env file.

Having no spaces between SECRET_KEY=my_secret_key_value solved it for me!

clear the spaces in .env!!

In the .env file remove the spaces between assignment operator and var, and between value and assignment operator. Like:

DJANGO_SECRET_KEY="NDCNSDIWBDVIBDVUOWDVJ30F9342FE20F9JCME"
DEBUG="True"

If your SECRET_KEY starts with $ (dollar sign) you will encounter same exception as OP, which is a known bug with django-environ package.

In this case, just generate new SECRET_KEY:

from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key
print(get_random_secret_key())

Also had the same error. My personal issue was due to the location of the .env file.

My file structure was as follows:

BASEDIRECTORY
  Django-Project
    myapp1
    myapp2
    myInitializedProjectApp
      settings.py
      wsgi.py
      ...
  .env
  .gitignore
  Dockerfile
  ...

So my env app was at the same level as my Django-project folder

in my settings.py, after BASE_DIR is declared i included:
env.read_env('../.env')

which I guess is basically sending the folder up one from the BASE_DIR to the location of the .env it needs to read.

For some cases, you may want to set variables on settings based on env var, or if no env var is set use some default.

Provide a default option to avoid ImproperlyConfigured Exception,

SECRET_KEY = env('SECRET_KEY', default="asdfasdfasdfasdf")

DEBUG = env('DEBUG', default=False)