Static files are not getting loaded in Django

Question

Static files are not getting loaded when running on server. I have tried the whitenoise library and referred to the Documentation (http://whitenoise.evans.io/en/stable/django.html) as well, but no luck. I am new to Django, would appreciate any help. PS: I have also collected the static folder using-

python manage.py collectstatic

Below is what I have in my settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'whitenoise.runserver_nostatic',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'django_celery_beat',
    'django_extensions',
    'haystack',
    'users.apps.UsersConfig',
    'rest_framework',
    'rest_framework.authtoken',
    'django_db_logger.apps.DbLoggerAppConfig',
]

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
]

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'server.wsgi.application'

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

Answer 1

you need to specify in Project/urls.py file

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

urlpatterns = [
    # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...
]

# For static file and media
if settings.DEBUG:
    urlpatterns += static(settings.STATIC_URL,
                          document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)

Answer 2

For example, if your STATIC_URL is defined as static/, you can do this by adding the following snippet to your urls.py:

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

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

Answer 3

If static files are loading when you run locally, but not on your server, you may need to add something to your web server config. E.g. for nginx and your static folder location:

location /static/ {
    root /home/user/testing;
}

location /media/ {
    root /home/user/testing;
}

More details and an example for Apache at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/howto/deployment/wsgi/modwsgi/#serving-files