[Answer]-Django staticfiles aren't loading in production

staticfiles_urlpatterns() is not designed for production and only works if DEBUG = True. You need to serve up the static files separately. I’ve never used django with fcgi, but I’m assuming you can pull this off relatively easily.

The files are being looked for at yourdomain.com/static because that is what you set for your STATIC_URL

First, change your STATIC_ROOT to a public directory. You should have something like /home2/mlinsenb/public_html where you put your index.fcgi file. Create a static directory here and change your STATIC_ROOT = "/home2/mlinsenb/public_html/static"

You may want to do the same for MEDIA_ROOT too incase you use it in the future.

Your .htaccess should look like this if you were following the guide you posted:

AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule (media/.*)$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(admin/.*)$ index.fcgi/$1 [L]

Again, I’m no expert with mod_rewrite, but it looks like they handle the media files with that, so I would try adding one line for your static files:

AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule (media/.*)$ - [L]
RewriteRule (static/.*)$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(admin/.*)$ index.fcgi/$1 [L]

Then run python manage.py collectstatic and django should put all of your static files in /home2/mlinsenb/public_html/static

Now hostgator should serve up files at yourdomain.com/static from that directory.