MEDIA_URL Configuration
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Setting MEDIA_URL and MEDIA_ROOT
MEDIA_URL is the public URL prefix for uploads; MEDIA_ROOT is the filesystem directory they're actually saved to. Both are required for media uploads to work.
Example: Setting MEDIA_URL and MEDIA_ROOT
MEDIA_URL is the public URL prefix for uploads; MEDIA_ROOT is the filesystem directory they're actually saved to. Both are required for media uploads to work.
# settings.py
MEDIA_URL = 'media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR / 'media'Serving Media Files in Development
Unlike static files, media files need an explicit URL pattern added in development so Django knows to serve them from MEDIA_ROOT.
Note: This pattern should only be added when DEBUG is True — it's not meant for production use.
Example: Serving Media Files in Development
Unlike static files, media files need an explicit URL pattern added in development so Django knows to serve them from MEDIA_ROOT.
from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static
urlpatterns = [
# ... your other patterns
]
if settings.DEBUG:
urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)Referencing an Uploaded File in a Template
A FileField/ImageField's .url attribute already includes MEDIA_URL, so templates can link directly to it without manual string building.
Example: Referencing an Uploaded File in a Template
A FileField/ImageField's .url attribute already includes MEDIA_URL, so templates can link directly to it without manual string building.
<img src="{{ profile.avatar.url }}" alt="Avatar">- Forgetting to add the media URL pattern in urls.py during development, so uploaded files 404 even though they exist on disk.
- Using django.conf.urls.static.static() in production — it's a development-only convenience, not meant for real deployments.
- Mixing up MEDIA_URL with MEDIA_ROOT when building a template link to an uploaded file.
- MEDIA_URL is the URL prefix used to serve user-uploaded files.
- In development, urls.py must explicitly add a pattern to serve files from MEDIA_ROOT.
- In production, a real web server (not Django itself) should serve media files.
- A model's FileField/ImageField already builds the correct URL through its .url attribute.
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