Django (using TokenAuthentication): “non_field_errors”: "Unable to log in with provided credentials?

Question

I\'m using httpie to test my custom authentication.

http POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/api-token-auth/ username=\'username1\' password=\'Password123\'

Answer 1

If you search for the error string in the DRF code, you find this (in authtoken/serializers.py:

from django.contrib.auth import authenticate
...

if username and password:                                                                                                                                                                                                              
    user = authenticate(username=username, password=password)                                                                                                                                                                          

    if user:                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
        # From Django 1.10 onwards the `authenticate` call simply                                                                                                                                                                      
        # returns `None` for is_active=False users.                                                                                                                                                                                    
        # (Assuming the default `ModelBackend` authentication backend.)                                                                                                                                                                
        if not user.is_active:                                                                                                                                                                                                         
            msg = _('User account is disabled.')                                                                                                                                                                                       
            raise serializers.ValidationError(msg, code='authorization')
    else:                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
        msg = _('Unable to log in with provided credentials.')                                                                                                                                                                         
        raise serializers.ValidationError(msg, code='authorization')
...

So it looks like depending on which version of Django you're using, either these credentials are incorrect, or the user is not active (for Django >= 1.10)?

Have you tried logging in manually in the admin with these credentials to verify them?

Answer 2

OK I solved it. Inside my settings, I just had to remove the AUTHENTICATIONS_BACKEND. I thought my custom backend was different for merely logging a user in and the token authentication backend worked to get that token.