You're using the staticfiles app without having set the STATIC_ROOT setting to a filesystem path

Question

I have gone through every other answer and cannot seem to get anything to work for me. I am following a tutorial and trying to push my master branch to heroku and get the error You're using the staticfiles app without having set the STATIC_ROOT setting to a filesystem path. I am using Django 2.0 and python 3.6.3. The full traceback:

remote: -----> $ python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
remote:        Traceback (most recent call last):
remote:          File "manage.py", line 15, in <module>
remote:            execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
remote:          File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 371, in execute_from_command_line
remote:            utility.execute()
remote:          File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 365, in execute
remote:            self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
remote:          File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 288, in run_from_argv
remote:            self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
remote:          File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 335, in execute
remote:            output = self.handle(*args, **options)
remote:          File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 189, in handle
remote:            collected = self.collect()
remote:          File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 114, in collect
remote:            handler(path, prefixed_path, storage)
remote:          File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 344, in copy_file
remote:            if not self.delete_file(path, prefixed_path, source_storage):
remote:          File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 250, in delete_file
remote:            if self.storage.exists(prefixed_path):
remote:          File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django/core/files/storage.py", line 308, in exists
remote:            return os.path.exists(self.path(name))
remote:          File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django/contrib/staticfiles/storage.py", line 43, in path
remote:            raise ImproperlyConfigured("You're using the staticfiles app "
remote:        django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: You're using the staticfiles app without having set the STATIC_ROOT setting to a filesystem path.
remote: 
remote:  !     Error while running '$ python manage.py collectstatic --noinput'.
remote:        See traceback above for details.
remote: 
remote:        You may need to update application code to resolve this error.
remote:        Or, you can disable collectstatic for this application:
remote: 
remote:           $ heroku config:set DISABLE_COLLECTSTATIC=1
remote: 
remote:        https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/django-assets
remote:  !     Push rejected, failed to compile Python app.
remote: 
remote:  !     Push failed
remote: Verifying deploy...
remote: 
remote: !   Push rejected to obscure-spire-97107.
remote: 
To https://git.heroku.com/obscure-spire-97107.git
 ! [remote rejected] master -> master (pre-receive hook declined)

My settings.py

import os

# Build paths inside the project like this: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ...)
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))


# Quick-start development settings - unsuitable for production
# See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.0/howto/deployment/checklist/

# SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
SECRET_KEY = '5af%uw_wn*o#v$gp!dj1yrxf0#z+4_+&4$3f^kjh*fc7+ec4*9'

# SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
DEBUG = True

ALLOWED_HOSTS = []


# Application definition

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',

    #added apps for project, my_apps
    'blog',
    'users',

    #third party apps
    'bootstrap3',

]

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    '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',
]

ROOT_URLCONF = 'book_project.urls'

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'book_project.wsgi.application'


# Database
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.0/ref/settings/#databases

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
    }
}


# Password validation
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.0/ref/settings/#auth-password-validators

AUTH_PASSWORD_VALIDATORS = [
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.UserAttributeSimilarityValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.MinimumLengthValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.CommonPasswordValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.NumericPasswordValidator',
    },
]


# Internationalization
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.0/topics/i18n/

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'

TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'

USE_I18N = True

USE_L10N = True

USE_TZ = True


# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.0/howto/static-files/

STATIC_URL = '/static/'

#My settings
LOGIN_URL = 'users/login/'

#settings bootstrap3
BOOTSTRAP3 = {
    'include_jquery':True,
}

#Heroku settings
# ROOT_PATH = os.path.dirname(__file__)
if os.getcwd() == '/app':
    import dj_database_url
    DATABASES = {
        'default': dj_database_url.config(default='postgres://localhost')
    }

    SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')

    ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']

    BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)),
    STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')
    STATICFILES_DIRS = (
        os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
    )

I tried getting rid of the if statement to see if that was the problem but no luck. Looking for any advice.

Answer 1

Summarizing ratrace's answer, the main solution is to add

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

to settings.py. Where STATIC_ROOT is the destination to where static files are copied and from where they are served when deploying the Django app.

Answer 2

I was able to make this work by getting rid of the if statement all together and just having the following in my settings.py.

import dj_database_url
DATABASES = {
    'default': dj_database_url.config(default='postgres://localhost')
}

SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'staticfiles')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
)