I am getting raise ImproperlyConfigured( django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading MySQLdb module. Did you install mysqlclient?

Question

My settings.py looks like this and I have created a db with name student in mysql. Despite having installed mysqlclient latest version I am getting this error. I tried with using other database setup but still got similar error.

"""
Django settings for studentReportCard project.

Generated by 'django-admin startproject' using Django 4.2.3.

For more information on this file, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/topics/settings/

For the full list of settings and their values, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/ref/settings/
"""

from pathlib import Path

# 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/4.2/howto/deployment/checklist/

# SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
SECRET_KEY = 'django-insecure-%38#(h6gd4$$2%n7+-3v3#-n)mcaobie=)1o&f()+&8m!+oq)!'

# SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
DEBUG = True

ALLOWED_HOSTS = []


# Application definition

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'report_card',
]

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
]

ROOT_URLCONF = 'studentReportCard.urls'

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',
            ],
        },
    },
]

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'studentReportCard.wsgi.application'


# Database
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/ref/settings/#databases



DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
        'USER': 'root',
        'NAME': 'student',
        'PASSWORD': '*****',
        'HOST': '127.0.0.1',
        'PORT': '3306',
    }
}



# Password validation
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/ref/settings/#auth-password-validators

AUTH_PASSWORD_VALIDATORS = [
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.UserAttributeSimilarityValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.MinimumLengthValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.CommonPasswordValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.NumericPasswordValidator',
    },
]


# Internationalization
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/topics/i18n/

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'

TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'

USE_I18N = True

USE_TZ = True


# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/howto/static-files/

STATIC_URL = 'static/'

# Default primary key field type
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.2/ref/settings/#default-auto-field

DEFAULT_AUTO_FIELD = 'django.db.models.BigAutoField'

I tried using other database setup but got similar issues with posgresql with package psycopg2. I created a new project as well but the error still persists. I also used the other solution I found on stackoverflow

sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/lib/libmysqlclient.21.dylib /usr/local/lib/libmysqlclient.21.dylib Even this didn't work for me

Answer 1

This is not the exact solution but I could make django app work with mysql using another package pymysql.

You need to make these changes in settings.py file

import pymysql

...

DATABASES = {
    "default": {
        "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.mysql",
        "NAME": "testapp",
    }
}

# Fake PyMySQL's version and install as MySQLdb
# https://adamj.eu/tech/2020/02/04/how-to-use-pymysql-with-django/

pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb()

You can then verify that import MySQLdb now produces the pymysql module instead:

$ python manage.py shell

Then import MySQLdb

>>import MySQLdb
>>MySQLdb
<module 'pymysql' from '/.../site-packages/pymysql/__init__.py'>