Why am I receiving KeyError: 'django' when running python manage.py runserver

Question

I get an error when I try to start my server. I'm using Django in a virtual environment. I've spent hours searching for this & can't find an answer

Here is the error that I received:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\jaiso\.virtualenvs\storefront2-4TwSyq5h\lib\site-packages\django\template\utils.py", line 69, in __getitem__
    return self._engines[alias]
KeyError: 'django'

Here are my installed packages:

Package Version
--------------------- -------
asgiref 3.5.2
Django 4.1.2
django-debug-toolbar 3.7.0
django-rest-framework 0.1.0
djangorestframework 3.14.0
drf-nested-routers 0.93.4
mysqlclient 2.1.1
pip 22.2.2
Python-Rest-Framework 0.3.14
pytz 2022.4
setuptools 65.3.0
six 1.16.0
sqlparse 0.4.3
tzdata 2022.4
wheel 0.37.1

Answer 1

So I assume you aren't doing custom template stuff, so here's most likely the fix.

Go into your settings.py and make sure your TEMPLATES look like this:

• Take specific Note on the BACKEND value

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]

---

I changed the BACKEND Value to: template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates and I got the same error (removed the first django.)

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\{me}\Envs\tmpdjango\lib\site-packages\django\template\utils.py", line 71, in __getitem__
    self.run(**options)
    return self._engines[alias]
KeyError: 'django'

and it's due to:

# django.templates.util. ~26
def templates(self):
    if self._templates is None:
        self._templates = settings.TEMPLATES

    # stuff chopped out


    for tpl in self._templates:
        try:
            # ********** This Line \/ *******************
            default_name = tpl["BACKEND"].rsplit(".", 2)[-2]

            # 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates'.rsplit(".", 2)[-2]
            # out: 'django'

        except Exception:
            pass # (actually an error here)

    ## futher down
    tpl = {
        "NAME": default_name,
        "DIRS": [],
        "APP_DIRS": False,
        "OPTIONS": {},
        **tpl,
    }

    templates[tpl["NAME"]] = tpl

    # more Stuff

and where the error is happening: alias seems to always be django (not sure why)

# django.templates.util. ~69
def __getitem__(self, alias):

    print('alias',alias)
    # alias == 'django'

    try:
        return self._engines[alias]
    except KeyError:
        try:
            params = self.templates[alias]
            # print(self.templates)
        except KeyError:
            raise InvalidTemplateEngineError(
                "Could not find config for '{}' "
                "in settings.TEMPLATES".format(alias)
            )