Question

Static files only served when debug = True and does not when it is False in production for nginx ubuntu 22.04

I have followed the setup procedures here https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-django-with-postgres-nginx-and-gunicorn-on-ubuntu-22-04 and my Django app is running but whenever I turn debug = False it will not load my static files.

Below is my nginx configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name server_domain_or_IP;

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location /static/ {
        root /home/sammy/myprojectdir;
    }

    location / {
        include proxy_params;
        proxy_pass http://unix:/run/gunicorn.sock;
    }
}

and my settings.py:

STATIC_URL = 'static/'

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

STATICFILES_DIRS = [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'my_site/static')]
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Bobby Iliev
Site Moderator
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• September 21, 2022

Hi there,

The has been a similar question asked here:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/nginx-not-serving-static-files-for-django-app-help

The location /static/ part at sites-available and STATIC_ROOT at settings.py should be same.

For example:

location /static/ {
        alias   /opt/appname/static/;
    }

STATIC_ROOT = '/opt/appname/static/'

After that run:

python manage.py collectstatic

Hope that this helps!

Best,

Bobby

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