Django static files won't load

Question

i'm a Django newbie working on my first project and having a problem with static files. I have created a simple auth system using `django.contrib.auth` consisting of two templates: `mysite/templates/index.html` and `mysite/templates/registration/login.html`. I have global static content in `mysite/static` which I want to be able to access on all templates rendered by all apps. `mysite/templates/index.html` contains `

` which renders as `"static/pics03.jpg"` and loads fine when I visit the url `localhost:8000/` `mysite/templates/registration/login.html` contains `

` which also renders as `"static/pics03.jpg"` and does not load when I visit the url `"localhost:8000/accounts/login/"` In my urls.py I have: ``` urlpatterns = patterns('', url(r'^$', 'mysite.views.home'), # plays index.html template url(r'^accounts/login/$', 'django.contrib.auth.views.login'), ``` In my settings.py I have: ``` PROJECT_DIR = os.path.d…

Accepted Answer

Your problem is that you arent listening to the URL "/static/" nowhere in your urls.py

If you serve your application via a webserver like apache or nginx then this is normal as the webserver would handle the static files itself.

For development Django comes with a built-in static server

to urls.py, at the very end add

```
from django.contrib.staticfiles.urls import staticfiles_urlpatterns
urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns()
```

What this does is to add the /static/ url and let you serve those without a webserver.

This is equivalent to

```
url(
    regex=r'^static/(?P<path>.*)$', 
    view='django.views.static.serve', 
    kwargs={'document_root': settings.STATIC_ROOT,}
)
```

some people will tell you that you need to wrap the URL-rules in a "if settings.DEBUG" to use the dev-only rules, but this isnt needed at all and actually i find that to be a bad advice.

Django static files won't load

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