Can not create superuser for Django site - PostgreSQL database- fatal error: password authentication

Question

I am an extreme newbie to Django and using shell. Hence please be gentle. I am working on a site where the owner has lost the relationship with the developer and hence passwords to the admin accounts (front-end and back-end). I am trying to create superusers for both but am having problems with the database. The site uses a PostgreSQL database. In the shell I activate the virtual environment and run my command:

python3 manage.py createsuperuser

The email address is requested and enter but receive the error after several lines of script.

django.db.utils.OperationalError: FATAL: password authentication failed for the user "xxx".

Do I need to somehow activate or enable the connection to the database before running the command?? Again really new and not trying to be the developer on the site- just trying to gain access and create users. Many thanks.

ADDITION BASED ON CONVERSATION BELOW

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'hci',
        'USER': '',
        'PASSWORD': '',
        'HOST': '',
        'PORT': '',
    }
}

except from base.py

from .base import *

DEBUG = True

TEMPLATES[0]['OPTIONS']['debug'] = True

CACHES = {
    'default': {
        'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.dummy.DummyCache',
     }
}

DATABASES['default'].update({
    'NAME': 'xxx_hcidemo',
    'USER': 'xxx_hcidemo',
    'PASSWORD': 'xxxxxxxxxx',
    'HOST': 'localhost',
})

BROKER_URL = 'redis://localhost:11201/0'
CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND = 'redis://localhost:11201/0'

entire demo.py file with password and username removed....

Solution was found! Many thx- the manage.py file was pointing at demo database - had to change to point at the production database. Completely agree - bad set-up but I now have access.

Tomasz Jakub Rup · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-11 16:13:01Z

1

Probably You (or someone else) change password to database.

Look at Your DATABASES settings in Your settings.py file and update PASSWORD field.

EDIT:

Your manage.py use different database settings, than site. Remove if __name__ == '__main__': from manage.py file and try to add user.

BTW. It's very bad solution to differentiation prod env from dev env in this way.

edited Nov 11, 2016 at 16:13

answered Nov 9, 2016 at 16:58

Tomasz Jakub Rup

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4 Comments

user2213980 Over a year ago

the databases settings seem to be in a different location noted in the manage.py file - which I have access to and has a password in the file. If the password was wrong in here would that not affect the ability of the live site to save to the database (which it can do) - I can log in as a basic front-end user and make changes to the projects associated with the user. Is it possible to verify if the password is correct?

Tomasz Jakub Rup Over a year ago

if i understand correctly: Your manage.py file use different setting.py file than project?

user2213980 Over a year ago

my manage.py file has the line if name == "main": os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "hci.settings.demo") which has the demo.py file with the database settings... this file also calls a base.py file in the same folder with empty database settings I believe with the line from .base import * at the top of demo.py does this makes any sense?

user2213980 Over a year ago

added response to main question

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