Django 2.2 breaks previously working views/urls

Question

Decided to take out Django 2.2 for a spin (project is currently running 2.1.8) and now I can't even get the server to start. I have been maintaining this project for nearly two years and this should be a minor update.

The error seems to be related to my views, but I can't find anything in the release notes that has meaningfully changed between 2.1.8 and 2.2. I suspect it may be due to my rather non-standard view system. Instead of a single file called views.py, I use a folder of view files joined by an __init__.py. But again, that's just a guess.

Watching for file changes with StatReloader
Exception in thread Thread-1:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python37\lib\threading.py", line 917, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "C:\Python37\lib\threading.py", line 865, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 54, in wrapper
    fn(*args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\commands\runserver.py", line 117, in inner_run
    self.check(display_num_errors=True)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\base.py", line 390, in check
    include_deployment_checks=include_deployment_checks,
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\base.py", line 377, in _run_checks
    return checks.run_checks(**kwargs)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\checks\registry.py", line 72, in run_checks
    new_errors = check(app_configs=app_configs)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\checks\urls.py", line 13, in check_url_config
    return check_resolver(resolver)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\checks\urls.py", line 23, in check_resolver
    return check_method()
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\urls\resolvers.py", line 399, in check
    messages.extend(check_resolver(pattern))
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\checks\urls.py", line 23, in check_resolver
    return check_method()
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\urls\resolvers.py", line 400, in check
    messages.extend(self._check_custom_error_handlers())
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\urls\resolvers.py", line 408, in _check_custom_error_handlers
    handler, param_dict = self.resolve_error_handler(status_code)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\urls\resolvers.py", line 590, in resolve_error_handler
    return get_callable(callback), {}
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\urls\utils.py", line 28, in get_callable
    mod = import_module(mod_name)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\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 965, in _find_and_load_unlocked
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'views'

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:/git/si-dash/manage.py", line 22, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 381, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 375, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\base.py", line 323, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\commands\runserver.py", line 60, in execute
    super().execute(*args, **options)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\base.py", line 364, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\commands\runserver.py", line 95, in handle
    self.run(**options)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\commands\runserver.py", line 102, in run
    autoreload.run_with_reloader(self.inner_run, **options)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 579, in run_with_reloader
    start_django(reloader, main_func, *args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 564, in start_django
    reloader.run(django_main_thread)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 275, in run
    self.run_loop()
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 281, in run_loop
    next(ticker)
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 321, in tick
    state.update(self.loop_files(state, previous_timestamp))
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 328, in loop_files
    for path, mtime in self.snapshot_files():
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 348, in snapshot_files
    for file in self.watched_files():
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 241, in watched_files
    yield from iter_all_python_module_files()
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 103, in iter_all_python_module_files
    return iter_modules_and_files(modules, frozenset(_error_files))
  File "C:\Python37\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", line 128, in iter_modules_and_files
    if not path.exists():
  File "C:\Python37\lib\pathlib.py", line 1339, in exists
    self.stat()
  File "C:\Python37\lib\pathlib.py", line 1161, in stat
    return self._accessor.stat(self)
OSError: [WinError 123] The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect: '<frozen importlib._bootstrap>'

Again, this view layout has been working for years now and I can't find anything relating to urls or views that has changed between 2.1.8 and 2.2.

All I am going off of is the sudden ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'views'

Edit: With @Alasdair 's help I have gotten past this error, but I still have no idea why this is going on. The project runs perfectly on 2.1.8, and there is nothing in the docs regarding a change in how you reference handler### views. Also the fact that I got LookupError: No installed app with label 'admin' and then that magically went away after uninstalling and installing 2.2 again doesn't make me feel great.

Answer 1

It seems the custom error handlers are the cause of it.

In Django 2.1 I had a custom handler for a 500 Error error like this:

def error_500_view(request, exception):
    return render(request,'500.html')

But in Django 2.2 it seems that the 500 Error handler only takes 1 argument, so I changed to:

def error_500_view(request):
    return render(request,'500.html')

And everything is working normal again.

So make sure your 404 Error handler is something like:

def notfound(request, exception):
    return render(request,'400.html')