Error when connecting Django project to mysql?

Question

I'm using python 3 and I have tried to connect my Django project(django3) to MySQL but I keep getting this error even though I installed mysqlclient.

I get this error when I'm trying to connect to MySQL

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 21, in <module>
    main()
  File "manage.py", line 17, in main
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 401, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 377, in execute
    django.setup()
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/__init__.py", line 24, in setup
    apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/apps/registry.py", line 114, in populate
    app_config.import_models()
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/apps/config.py", line 211, in import_models
    self.models_module = import_module(models_module_name)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/importlib/__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1006, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 983, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 967, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 677, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 728, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/contrib/auth/models.py", line 2, in <module>
    from django.contrib.auth.base_user import AbstractBaseUser, BaseUserManager
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/contrib/auth/base_user.py", line 47, in <module>
    class AbstractBaseUser(models.Model):
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/db/models/base.py", line 121, in __new__
    new_class.add_to_class('_meta', Options(meta, app_label))
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/db/models/base.py", line 325, in add_to_class
    value.contribute_to_class(cls, name)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/db/models/options.py", line 208, in contribute_to_class
    self.db_table = truncate_name(self.db_table, connection.ops.max_name_length())
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 28, in __getattr__
    return getattr(connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS], item)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 207, in __getitem__
    backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE'])
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 111, in load_backend
    return import_module('%s.base' % backend_name)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/importlib/__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/mysql/base.py", line 21, in <module>
    ) from err
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading MySQLdb module.
Did you install mysqlclient?

Answer 1

Make sure you are running the MySQL server on your machine. Then find out you installed mysqlclient package on your system, you can install it using this command:

pip install mysqlclient

then add this config to your settings.py:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql', 
        'NAME': 'DB_NAME',
        'USER': 'DB_USER',
        'PASSWORD': 'DB_PASSWORD',
        'HOST': 'localhost'
        'PORT': '3306',
    }
}

Answer 2

According to https://github.com/Miserlou/lambda-packages You will get this error because there's no mysqlclient built for Python 3.7. Therefore you have to use pymysql.

I have figured out a way to fix this issue by,

First, you have to install pymysql

pip install pymysql

Then you have to add this code into init .py(or settings.py) file

import pymysql
pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb()
pymysql.version_info = (1, 3, 13, 'final', 0)