MIDDLEWARE vs MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES: 'WSGIRequest' object has no attribute 'user'

[Andrew Emory]

My settings.py file has the default MIDDLEWARE settings generated by django-admin startapp:

MIDDLEWARE = [

    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',

    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',

    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',

    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',

    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',

    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',

    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',

]

But when I visit /admin I get an Attribute Error with a traceback that lists 

Installed Middleware:

['django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',

 'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware']

And Request_Information - Settings that lists: 

MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES

['django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware', 'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware']

I am thinking of editing my settings file to read MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES instead of MIDDLEWARE (because of stack-overflow articles) but according to the Django Documentation that will only sweep the problem under the rug rather than addressing the issue.  I don't see why, at this point, I should deviate from the default settings.  Or, what caused the problem in the first place.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Tim Graham]

Are you running Django 1.10? It looks like your MIDDLEWARE setting is ignored which suggests you might be using an older version.