raise ImproperlyConfigured("The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.") code example

Example: django.core.exceptions.improperlyconfigured: the secret_key setting must not be empty.

I had the same error and it turned out to be a circular dependency between a module or class loaded by the settings and the settings module itself. In my case it was a middleware class which was named in the settings which itself tried to load the settings.