404 Static file not found - Django

Question

I have an issue with django. I recently bought an instance of a shared server and I wanted to move my django website from AWS to this server (which use Cpanel). All worked fine with AWS but when I switched to Cpanel all statics files were missing.

this is my settings.py:

STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')

MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')
MEDIA_URL = "/media/"

STATICFILES_DIRS = [
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
    ]

my project structure:

my_project
|-app/
    |-...
    |-views.py
|-db.sqlite3
|-manage.py
|-media/
|-my_project/
    |-...
    |-settings.py
|-static/
    |-main_page/
        |-js/
            |-my-script.js

I add static files like this:

{% load static %}
<script src="{% static 'main_page/js/my-script.js' %}"></script>

This is the error:

GET http://my.domain.com/static/main_page/js/my-script.js net::ERR_ABORTED 404 (Not Found)

When I go to the URL of the file it understands it like one of my URLs:

I hope you will help me to solve this issue ;) thanks.

Answer 1

you need to add the static & media files config in the urls.py , like this

from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static

urlpatterns = [
    # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...
] 
urlpatterns  +=  static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)

the django docs : https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/howto/static-files/

Answer 2

For those who still looking for static file solution, please try Django package Whitenoise. It is easy to install and easy to use if you followed the instructions.

some simplified steps:

1. Collect static - make sure static files existing before install

    python manage.py collectstatic
   

2. Install the Whitenoise - this step depends how you managed the packages, update proper file(e.g. Pipfile or requirements.txt) and install. Below command just a example to install the package.

    pip install whitenoise
   

3. Update the static root in settings.py

    STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR / "staticfiles"
   

4. Add the following to your MIDDLEWARE in settings.py - from Whwitenoise docs, Whitenoise package should place after django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware

    `MIDDLEWARE = [
      'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
      'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware', #add it here exactly after security middleware
      ...
    ]
   

5. now restart or rebuild the app to check whether it is working for you.

Please check Whitenoise docs if you running into issue about installing the Whitenoise(Whitenoise docs)

a message for using staticfiles_urlpatterns: this only works when DEBUG=True in settings.py which means you should NOT use it for production environment. see reference here