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Error 404 serving media files in a Django app hosted on DigitalOcean

I am making a small Django app and I want to use files uploaded via Django admin panel in production
This is from my settings.py file
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'staticfiles')
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
)
MEDIA_URL = ''
MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR
I trust admin uploaded files and want to serve them easily(without Amazon S3 and similar services), so i tried to place the uploaded files with other static files
image = models.ImageField(upload_to='static/images')
After uploading an image via admin panel i run python manage.py collectstatic in the DigitalOcean console. Whenever i try to access the image i get Error 404, while all other static files(which are real static files, not uploaded via admin panel) load successfully
I did the same thing locally and there is no problem, everything loads as expected(DEBUG=True is set both locally and on DigitalOcean). Is it some security measure that doesnt let uploaded files end up in static? How can i bypass it if i trust files uploaded via admin panel?

if you're using manage.py runserver to run you website
first make sure that the media is being served in your main urls.py
urlpatterns = [
...
] + [
static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
]
then you can use runserver with --insecure to run your website with or without DEBUG=True
python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:80 --insecure
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.2/ref/contrib/staticfiles/#cmdoption-runserver-insecure
as in the django documentation this is not the recommended way to serve your files, you should use a reverse proxy like nginx or apache
or if you really dont want to use a reverse proxy, you could give whitenoise a try
http://whitenoise.evans.io/en/stable/django.html

Django server does not serve static files for admin page

I have a Django server running with nginx and gunicorn.
All static files are served correctly, only the admin page has no css, js, etc. .
I already ran collectstatic and restarted nginx and gunicorn.
Nothing changed.
What can I do?

Make sure to mention the locations of your staticfiles_dirs in settings.py. Also remember to mention the locations of your static files in a dynamic format instead of hard coding them in your html document.And make sure to load static in base.html.

Try using this sample code in your settings.py file:
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS=[
os.path.join(BASE_DIR,'templates'),
'/var/www/static/'
]
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'assets')
After this use the following command in terminal:
python manage.py collectstatic
This should create the static folder and copy all the static objects inside

Handling media django

I am trying to handle the django static and media content. This is my code in settings.py
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static/')
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media/')
In urls.py
urlpatterns += static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
I am uploading files and videos to my site, everything is working fine even static and media content is being displayed.
My actual doubt is-
I am actually running in development environment. In production for collecting the static content generally python manage.py collectstatic is used and then it is handled. But in development according to docs, app called django.contrib.staticfiles is used serve static files. But what about media files, how are they served actually ??
When I upload a image it is getting stored to project_name/media/app_name insted of project_name/app_name/media/app_name as static files are being accessed from path similar to latter, why are media files being stored in different manner.
Finally:
How the media files got served in development ?
How to serve media files in production ?

When I upload a image it is getting stored to project_name/media/app_name insted of project_name/app_name/media/app_name as static files are being accessed from path similar to latter, why are media files being stored in different manner.
Media files are uploaded to the MEDIA_ROOT directory. Your MEDIA_ROOT is media, so django will keep uploaded files there.
Additionally, if in the FileField or ImageField you use upload_to path, django will create required folders accordingly. For example, for something like this:
image = models.ImageField(upload_to='myapp/')
Django will create a myapp folder inside media and keep the uploaded images there.
How the media files got served in development ?
Because of this line of code:
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
It tells django to serve MEDIA_ROOT directory at MEDIA_URL.
How to serve media files in production ?
Configure your webserver to serve media and static files. Django doesn't serve media and static files because it's not good at that. An actual webserver like Nginx or Apache is configured for serving static files efficiently.

strange django static file behaviour

I'm getting 404 for static files when DEBUG=False in my settings. The file is served fine when DEBUG=True.
I'm looking at the docs and all my configs seem OK to me.
# my_settings.py
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_PATH, 'static')
STATIC_URL = '/static/`
then I run collectstatic --settings=my_settings, and ls static to confirm it has collected the files. It has:
ls ls static/css/core.css
# (its there).
But when we request "localhost:8000/static/css/core.css" we get 404.
Note running python manage.py findstatic css/core.css --settings=my_settings fails to find the file. When I do DEBUG=True and run findstatic it finds the file, but in the sub app's static dir, not the collected directory (STATIC_ROOT).
Note I have:
STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
)
and "staticfiles" is in my INSTALLED_APPS.
Django 1.6

As you have specified DEBUG = FALSE in settings, its now left on HTTP server like nginx or apache to serve the static files. You need to configure your webserver to serve static files. An example for apache can be found here.

Django with ./manager runserver works well, while Django + uwsgi return 404

This si my settings.py about static in settings.py:
STATIC_ROOT = '/home/coat/www/site/app/static/'
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
"/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/static/",
# This is Django admin default static files
)
I user django server:
./manager runserver
Then I open the URL: http://localhost:8000/static/admin/css/base.css
It works very well.
But a open http://localhost/static/admin/css/base.css
It print '404'
I had restart Nginx and uwsgi for many times, but it dosen't works.

First things first, this is nonono:
STATIC_ROOT = '/home/coat/www/site/app/static/'
Never hardcode absolute paths, you're just making your settings file less portable and probably killing kittens. Adapt this to your needs:
import os.path
import posixpath
PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..')
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'static')
# fix STATICFILES_DIRS too
Now, to your question. django.contrib.staticfiles is fantastic but probably a little confusing at first.
You must understand the collectstatic command:
Collects the static files into STATIC_ROOT. [...] Files are searched by using the enabled finders. The default is to look in all locations defined in STATICFILES_DIRS and in the 'static' directory of apps specified by the INSTALLED_APPS setting.
With runserver, staticfiles are served automatically, but in production mode (DEBUG=False, real HTTP server like Nginx), you should run collectstatic to (re)build STATIC_ROOT
STATIC_ROOT: is the root path where the HTTP server should serve static files from.
STATIC_URL: is the root URL where the HTTP server should serve static files to.
STATICFILES_DIRS: other static directories, in addition to each app's "static" subdirectory. Because django.contrib.admin is a normal app with a "static" folder, there is no need to specify it in the settings.
Conclusion: if STATIC_ROOT resolves to /home/coat/www/site/app/static/, and STATIC_URL is /static/, then you should:
Run collectstatic management command
Configure Nginx to serve /home/coat/www/site/app/static/ on /static/, ie.:
location ^~ /static/ {
alias /home/coat/www/site/app/static/;
}
Reload nginx

In development the runserver command does some magic to serve your static files. In production you need to configure NGinx to do it. There are two chapters in the Django documentation I recommend you read:
Serving static files in production
Serving files (Deployment)
Especially the last link explains how you have to configure your NGinx to serve your static files.