django - 404 not found error when loading static files

Question

I read the https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/static-files/ multiple times and I'm pulling my hairs out. I can't load my .js and .css files. Chrome debugger keeps getting me a "404 not found" for .js and .css files. This is what is in debugger:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/meetingapp/static/css/jquery-ui-1.8.14.custom.css 404 (NOT FOUND)

This is how I call css file in my base.html template:

<link type="text/css" href="{{ STATIC_URL }}css/jquery-ui-1.8.14.custom.css" rel="stylesheet" />

I'm running a developer server:

python manage.py runserver

settings.py

STATIC_URL = 'static/'
STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
#'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.DefaultStorageFinder',
)
INSTALLED_APPS = (
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.sites',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles'
)

urls.py

urlpatterns = patterns('meetingapp.views',
(r'^meetingapp/$', 'index'),
(r'^meetingapp/calc_meetings/$', 'calc_meetings')
)

Please help me. Thanks.

It would help others reading this to specify a Django version? I'm guessing 1.3? — James Khoury, Jul 27 '11 at 06:51
I was having the same problem, until I put an Alias for /static *before* the WSGI* directives in my apache config. Doesn't change the mapping of the files in my case, but *did* change the priority to make apache look in the static folder before handing off to Django. — Azendale, Nov 05 '15 at 06:26

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 27 '11 at 13:22

http://127.0.0.1:8000/meetingapp/static/css/jquery-ui-1.8.14.custom.css 404 (NOT FOUND)
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^ Your problem is right here...

You see that static is usually situated in the root of your project and it tries to find in your app root. And you need to chage your main settings.py STATIC FILES setting like so:

STATIC_URL = '/static/'
             ^ add a slash here

So your Static url will be:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/static/css/jquery-ui-1.8.14.custom.css

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 27 '11 at 06:48

3

I just figured it out: I had to add a record to STATICFILES_DIRS in settings.py

STATICFILES_DIRS = (
"/Projects/MeetingOrganization/meetings/meetingapp/static",
)

Thanks anyway :)

answered Jul 27 '11 at 06:48

h3ndr1ks

517
2
7
18

2

This is the wrong solution. If this worked for you it was because you short circuited a number of other things that you shouldn't have had to. The other suggestions here are correct - although I suspect that your problem is caused by something else. I am currently struggling with this same problem for 1.42, and I spent about 30 minutes trying out your suggestion until I understood that it was entirely wrong. – kamelkev Jul 15 '13 at 02:14
i think the problem here is that if the answer works, its not the wrong answer. the worst answer is no answer at all. – Michael Lorenzo Jul 21 '14 at 23:30
This is actually correct. Often, ```STATICFILES_DIRS``` is commented out during deployment. Not commenting that part seems to be useful for localhost, though. – Dimanjan Feb 17 '20 at 08:03

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 26 '11 at 22:11

2

Your STATIC_URL needs to begin with a slash.

answered Jul 26 '11 at 22:11

Daniel Roseman

588,541
66
880
895

Daniel, thanks for the answer, but if I use STATIC_URL='/static/' there is no difference. – h3ndr1ks Jul 27 '11 at 06:19

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 01 '14 at 18:13

I have spent whole day, solving the same problem in my project.

the problem was in not ASCII keys in Windows register (regedit) in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type find out the non-ASCII keys (such as šßü) and delete them.

hope it will help

django - 404 not found error when loading static files

4 Answers4