Preventing Error Messages with DEBUG=True in Django

In Django, the DEBUG setting is specifically designed to control whether detailed error pages are displayed. When DEBUG=True, Django intentionally shows detailed error information to help with development.

If you need to prevent error messages from being displayed in the browser while keeping DEBUG=True, you have a few options:

1. Custom Exception Middleware

You can create a custom middleware to handle exceptions:

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# In a file like myapp/middleware.py
from django.http import HttpResponse

class SuppressDebugErrorsMiddleware:
    def __init__(self, get_response):
        self.get_response = get_response

    def __call__(self, request):
        return self.get_response(request)

    def process_exception(self, request, exception):
        # Return a custom response instead of Django's debug page
        return HttpResponse("An error occurred", status=500)

Then add this middleware to your settings:

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MIDDLEWARE = [
    # ... other middleware
    'myapp.middleware.SuppressDebugErrorsMiddleware',
    # ... other middleware
]

2. Custom Error Handlers

You can define custom error handlers while keeping DEBUG=True:

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# In your urls.py
from django.conf import settings
from django.urls import path
from django.views.defaults import server_error

handler500 = 'myapp.views.custom_error_handler'

# In your views.py
def custom_error_handler(request, *args, **kwargs):
    return render(request, 'errors/500.html', status=500)

3. Better Approach: Use DEBUG=False with Custom Settings

The recommended approach is to set DEBUG=False and configure proper error handling. This is what Django is designed for:

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DEBUG = False
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['localhost', '127.0.0.1', 'yourdomain.com']

# Then define custom error handlers in urls.py
handler404 = 'myapp.views.custom_404'
handler500 = 'myapp.views.custom_500'

Important Note

According to Django's documentation, keeping DEBUG=True in production is strongly discouraged because:

1. It makes your server run slower
2. It can expose sensitive information to malicious users
3. It consumes more memory as Django remembers all SQL queries

If you need development-like features without exposing errors, consider implementing a custom logging configuration that captures errors but doesn't display them.