Password Reset via Email in Django: Complete Step-by-Step Tutorial

 

🔄 Implementing Password Reset via Email in Django (Step-by-Step)

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🔐 Mini-Series Reference

This is Part 4 of our Django Authentication Mini-Series:

1. ✅ Customize the Django User Model

2. 📧 Add Email Verification to Signup

3. 👤 Create User Profiles

4. 🔄 Password Reset via Email (You are here)

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Introduction

Password reset functionality is essential for any user-based application. Django provides built-in views and forms to handle this securely.

This post will guide you through configuring and customizing password reset emails and workflows in your Django app.

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Step 1: Configure Email Backend

For development, use the console backend (prints emails to console):

# settings.py
EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend'
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = 'noreply@yourdomain.com'

For production, configure SMTP backend (e.g., Gmail, SendGrid).

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Step 2: Add URL Patterns for Password Reset

In your accounts/urls.py:

from django.urls import path
from django.contrib.auth import views as auth_views

urlpatterns = [
    # Password reset URLs
    path('password_reset/', auth_views.PasswordResetView.as_view(template_name='accounts/password_reset_form.html'), name='password_reset'),
    path('password_reset_done/', auth_views.PasswordResetDoneView.as_view(template_name='accounts/password_reset_done.html'), name='password_reset_done'),
    path('reset/<uidb64>/<token>/', auth_views.PasswordResetConfirmView.as_view(template_name='accounts/password_reset_confirm.html'), name='password_reset_confirm'),
    path('reset_done/', auth_views.PasswordResetCompleteView.as_view(template_name='accounts/password_reset_complete.html'), name='password_reset_complete'),
]

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Step 3: Create Templates

Create the following templates in templates/accounts/:

password_reset_form.html

<h2>Reset Password</h2>
<form method="post">
  {% csrf_token %}
  {{ form.as_p }}
  <button type="submit">Send Reset Email</button>
</form>

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password_reset_done.html

<p>An email has been sent with instructions to reset your password.</p>

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password_reset_confirm.html

<h2>Set New Password</h2>
<form method="post">
  {% csrf_token %}
  {{ form.as_p }}
  <button type="submit">Reset Password</button>
</form>

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password_reset_complete.html

<p>Your password has been reset successfully! You can now <a href="{% url 'login' %}">log in</a>.</p>

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Step 4: Customize Password Reset Email Template (Optional)

Create registration/password_reset_email.html (this path is required):

{% autoescape off %}
Hi {{ user.get_full_name|default:user.email }},

You're receiving this email because you requested a password reset for your account.

Please go to the following link and set your new password:

{{ protocol }}://{{ domain }}{% url 'password_reset_confirm' uidb64=uid token=token %}

If you didn’t request this, please ignore this email.

Thanks,
Your Website Team
{% endautoescape %}

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Step 5: Test the Flow

• Visit /password_reset/

• Enter your email and submit

• Check console (in dev) for email with reset link

• Click link, set new password

• Verify you can log in with new password

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Conclusion

You’ve successfully added a secure password reset feature to your Django app with minimal effort by leveraging Django’s built-in auth views.

This completes our Django Authentication Mini-Series! You now have a solid foundation for user management, including custom users, email verification, profiles, and password reset.

Thank you for your patience! keep learning...

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