Under your main views.py add your own custom implementation of the following two views, and just set up the templates 404.html and 500.html with what you want to display.

With this solution, no custom code needs to be added to urls.py

Here’s the code:

from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
from django.template import RequestContext


def handler404(request, *args, **argv):
    response = render_to_response('404.html', {},
                                  context_instance=RequestContext(request))
    response.status_code = 404
    return response


def handler500(request, *args, **argv):
    response = render_to_response('500.html', {},
                                  context_instance=RequestContext(request))
    response.status_code = 500
    return response

Update

handler404 and handler500 are exported Django string configuration variables found in django/conf/urls/__init__.py. That is why the above config works.

To get the above config to work, you should define the following variables in your urls.py file and point the exported Django variables to the string Python path of where these Django functional views are defined, like so:

# project/urls.py

handler404 = 'my_app.views.handler404'
handler500 = 'my_app.views.handler500'

Update for Django 2.0

Signatures for handler views were changed in Django 2.0:
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.0/ref/views/#error-views

If you use views as above, handler404 will fail with message:

“handler404() got an unexpected keyword argument ‘exception'”

In such case modify your views like this:

def handler404(request, exception, template_name="404.html"):
    response = render_to_response(template_name)
    response.status_code = 404
    return response

Official answer:

Here is the link to the official documentation on how to set up custom error views:

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/topics/http/views/#customizing-error-views

It says to add lines like these in your URLconf (setting them anywhere else will have no effect):

handler404 = 'mysite.views.my_custom_page_not_found_view'
handler500 = 'mysite.views.my_custom_error_view'
handler403 = 'mysite.views.my_custom_permission_denied_view'
handler400 = 'mysite.views.my_custom_bad_request_view'

You can also customise the CSRF error view by modifying the setting CSRF_FAILURE_VIEW.

Default error handlers:

It’s worth reading the documentation of the default error handlers, page_not_found, server_error, permission_denied and bad_request. By default, they use these templates if they can find them, respectively: 404.html, 500.html, 403.html, and 400.html.

So if all you want to do is make pretty error pages, just create those files in a TEMPLATE_DIRS directory, you don’t need to edit URLConf at all. Read the documentation to see which context variables are available.

In Django 1.10 and later, the default CSRF error view uses the template 403_csrf.html.

Gotcha:

Don’t forget that DEBUG must be set to False for these to work, otherwise, the normal debug handlers will be used.

Add these lines in urls.py

urls.py

from django.conf.urls import (
handler400, handler403, handler404, handler500
)

handler400 = 'my_app.views.bad_request'
handler403 = 'my_app.views.permission_denied'
handler404 = 'my_app.views.page_not_found'
handler500 = 'my_app.views.server_error'

# ...

and implement our custom views in views.py.

views.py

from django.shortcuts import (
render_to_response
)
from django.template import RequestContext

# HTTP Error 400
def bad_request(request):
    response = render_to_response(
        '400.html',
        context_instance=RequestContext(request)
        )

        response.status_code = 400

        return response

# ...

Django 3.0+ 4.0+

here is link how to customize error views

here is link how to render a view

in the urls.py (the main one, in project folder), put:

handler404 = 'my_app_name.views.custom_page_not_found_view'
handler500 = 'my_app_name.views.custom_error_view'
handler403 = 'my_app_name.views.custom_permission_denied_view'
handler400 = 'my_app_name.views.custom_bad_request_view'

and in the mentioned app (my_app_name) put in the views.py:

def custom_page_not_found_view(request, exception):
    return render(request, "errors/404.html", {})

def custom_error_view(request, exception=None):
    return render(request, "errors/500.html", {})

def custom_permission_denied_view(request, exception=None):
    return render(request, "errors/403.html", {})

def custom_bad_request_view(request, exception=None):
    return render(request, "errors/400.html", {})

NOTE: errors/404.html is the path if you place your files into the projects (not the apps) template foldertemplates/errors/404.html so please place the files where you want and write the right path.

NOTE 2: After page reload, if you still see the old template, change in settings.py DEBUG=True, save it, and then again to False and save again (that will restart the server and collect the new files).

From the page you referenced:

When you raise Http404 from within a view, Django will load a special view devoted to handling 404 errors. It finds it by looking for the variable handler404 in your root URLconf (and only in your root URLconf; setting handler404 anywhere else will have no effect), which is a string in Python dotted syntax – the same format the normal URLconf callbacks use. A 404 view itself has nothing special: It’s just a normal view.

So I believe you need to add something like this to your urls.py:

handler404 = 'views.my_404_view'

and similar for handler500.

In Django 3.x, the accepted answer won’t work because render_to_response has been removed completely as well as some more changes have been made since the version the accepted answer worked for.

Some other answers are also there but I’m presenting a little cleaner answer:

In your main urls.py file:

handler404 = 'yourapp.views.handler404'
handler500 = 'yourapp.views.handler500'

In yourapp/views.py file:

def handler404(request, exception):
    context = {}
    response = render(request, "pages/errors/404.html", context=context)
    response.status_code = 404
    return response


def handler500(request):
    context = {}
    response = render(request, "pages/errors/500.html", context=context)
    response.status_code = 500
    return response

Ensure that you have imported render() in yourapp/views.py file:

from django.shortcuts import render

Side note: render_to_response() was deprecated in Django 2.x and it has been completely removed in verision 3.x.

If all you need is to show custom pages which have some fancy error messages for your site when DEBUG = False, then add two templates named 404.html and 500.html in your templates directory and it will automatically pick up this custom pages when a 404 or 500 is raised.

No additional view is required. https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/ref/views/

Just put the error files in the root of templates directory

• 404.html
• 400.html
• 403.html
• 500.html

And it should use your error page when debug is False

settings.py:

DEBUG = False
TEMPLATE_DEBUG = DEBUG
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['localhost']  #provide your host name

and just add your 404.html and 500.html pages in templates folder.
remove 404.html and 500.html from templates in polls app.

In Django 2.* you can use this construction in views.py

def handler404(request, exception):
    return render(request, 'errors/404.html', locals())

In settings.py

DEBUG = False

if DEBUG is False:
    ALLOWED_HOSTS = [
        '127.0.0.1:8000',
        '*',
    ]

if DEBUG is True:
    ALLOWED_HOSTS = []

In urls.py

# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.0/topics/http/views/#customizing-error-views
handler404 = 'YOUR_APP_NAME.views.handler404'

Usually i creating default_app and handle site-wide errors, context processors in it.

Make an error, on the error page find out from where django is loading templates. I mean the path stack. In base template_dir add these html pages 500.html , 404.html. When these errors occur the respective template files will be automatically loaded.

You can add pages for other error codes too, like 400 and 403.

As one single line (for 404 generic page):

from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
from django.template import RequestContext

return render_to_response('error/404.html', {'exception': ex},
                                      context_instance=RequestContext(request), status=404)

# views.py
def handler404(request, exception):
    context = RequestContext(request)
    err_code = 404
    response = render_to_response('404.html', {"code":err_code}, context)
    response.status_code = 404
    return response

# <project_folder>.urls.py
handler404 = 'todo.views.handler404' 

This works on django 2.0

Be sure to include your custom 404.html inside the app templates folder.

Try moving your error templates to .../Django/mysite/templates/.

I am note sure about this one, but I think these need to be "global" to the website.

In Django root urls.py file, add the below lines

from django.conf.urls import (handler400, handler403, handler404, handler500)

handler400 = 'app.views.bad_request'
handler403 = 'app.views.permission_denied'
handler404 = 'app.views.page_not_found'
handler500 = 'app.views.server_error'

In your app’s views.py file, create the respective functions.

def server_error(request, exception=None):
    # return render(request, '500.html')
    return redirect('/')

Finally, in your settings.py file, set DEBUG = False

I had an additional

TEMPLATE_DIRS

within my settings.py and that was causing the problem.

_{This answer was posted as an edit to the question Django, creating a custom 500/404 error page by the OP reZach under CC BY-SA 3.0.}

Django > 2.2

from django.shortcuts import render_to_response, render
from django.template import RequestContext
def handler500(request, *args, **argv):
    context = {}
    print(request.body, '==========')
    response = render(request, '500.jinja', context=context)
    response.status_code = 500
    return response

in urls.py

handler500 = 'apps.core.views.handler500'

In urls.py, enter this code:

from django.conf.urls import (handler400, handler403, handler404, handler500)

handler404 = 'my_app.views.page_not_found_view'

then add this code in your views.py

from django.shortcuts import render,get_object_or_404
def page_not_found_view(request, exception):
    return render(request, '404.html', status=404)

Dont forget to set DEBUG = False and also set ALLOWED_HOSTS = [127.0.0.1] while you are testing in your laptop.

You don’t need to do anything fancy, just create a 404.html file in your templates. Go to settings.py and set:

DEBUG = False
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ["*"] 

It will automatically overwrite the default.

Easy Method:

To quickly create a custom error page for the 404 error, place a file named 404.html in your root template directory. For other errors like 400, 500, and 403, follow the same pattern by creating 400.html, 500.html, and 403.html respectively in the same root template directory

Source: Django documentation on serving static files

Method 2:

To customize error pages in Django, follow these steps:

1. Open your Django root urls.py file.

2. Add the following lines to associate specific views with different error codes:

   from django.conf.urls import (handler400, handler403, handler404, handler500)
   
   handler400 = 'app.views.bad_request'
   handler403 = 'app.views.permission_denied'
   handler404 = 'app.views.page_not_found'
   handler500 = 'app.views.server_error'
   

   Replace 'app.views.bad_request', 'app.views.permission_denied', 'app.views.page_not_found', and 'app.views.server_error' with the actual paths to your custom view functions for handling each error.

Source: Django documentation on customizing error views

Keep in mind that if the DEBUG setting in your configuration is set to True, the custom 404 page you create might not be displayed. Instead, Django will show the URL configuration along with debugging information.