diff --git a/scrapy/cmdline.py b/scrapy/cmdline.py
index 9ec4e1b7a..aebdb51f6 100644
--- a/scrapy/cmdline.py
+++ b/scrapy/cmdline.py
@@ -96,6 +96,15 @@ def execute(argv=None, settings=None):
         settings = get_project_settings()
     check_deprecated_settings(settings)
 
+    # --- backwards compatibility for scrapy.conf.settings singleton ---
+    import warnings
+    from scrapy.exceptions import ScrapyDeprecationWarning
+    with warnings.catch_warnings():
+        warnings.simplefilter("ignore", ScrapyDeprecationWarning)
+        from scrapy import conf
+        conf.settings = settings
+    # ------------------------------------------------------------------
+
     crawler = CrawlerProcess(settings)
     crawler.install()
     inproject = inside_project()
diff --git a/scrapy/conf.py b/scrapy/conf.py
index 717f1da6f..23efc6ffd 100644
--- a/scrapy/conf.py
+++ b/scrapy/conf.py
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
 # This module is kept for backwards compatibility, so users can import
 # scrapy.conf.settings and get the settings they expect
 
-from scrapy.project import crawler
-settings = crawler.settings
+import sys
+
+if 'scrapy.cmdline' not in sys.modules:
+    from scrapy.utils.project import get_project_settings
+    settings = get_project_settings()
 
 import warnings
 from scrapy.exceptions import ScrapyDeprecationWarning