I am encountering recurring issues on shared hosting with CPANEL when setting DEBUG=False in my Django production environment. Specifically, I face two problems:

1. MEDIA files not being found.
2. A 500 Internal Server Error.

I have tried multiple solutions from various sources including these references:
• Django WhiteNoise 500 server error in non debug mode - Stack Overflow (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53859972/django-whitenoise-500-server-error-in-non-debug-mode)
• WhiteNoise 6.8.2 documentation (https://whitenoise.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
• PythonAnywhere forum post on WhiteNoise configuration (https://www.pythonanywhere.com/forums/topic/13329/)

One of the approaches was to change the STATICFILES_STORAGE in settings.py from:

BASHCopied
((company:3.8)) [rango@das107 company]$ python --version
Python 3.8.18
((company:3.8)) [rango@das107 company]$ pip show django
Name: Django
Version: 4.2.16

and in the settings file:

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STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'

to:

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STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedStaticFilesStorage'

However, neither modification has resolved the issue. Below are the relevant sections of my configuration.

Settings.py:

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import os
from pathlib import Path
import pymysql
import environ

# Define BASE_DIR before using it
BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent

# Initialize environment variables from the .env file
ev = environ.Env()
environ.Env.read_env(os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ‘.env’))

# Custom error handlers
handler403 = ‘website.views.forbidden’
handler404 = ‘website.views.error’

# Quick-start development settings - unsuitable for production
# See [Deployment checklist | Django documentation | Django](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.1/howto/deployment/checklist/)

# SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
SECRET_KEY = env(‘DJANGO_SECRET_KEY’)

# SECURITY WARNING: don’t run with debug turned on in production!
DEBUG = env.bool(‘DEBUG’, default=True)

# Session settings
SESSION_ENGINE = ‘django.contrib.sessions.backends.db’  # Default session engine (use database)
SESSION_COOKIE_NAME = ‘sessionid’  # Session cookie name
SESSION_COOKIE_AGE = 1209600  # Session age in seconds (default: 2 weeks)
SESSION_EXPIRE_AT_BROWSER_CLOSE = False  # Keep session open even after browser close
SESSION_SAVE_EVERY_REQUEST = False  # Save session every request
SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE = True  # Use secure cookies
SESSION_COOKIE_SAMESITE = ‘Lax’  # Cross-site cookie handling

LOGGING = {
‘version’: 1,
‘disable_existing_loggers’: False,
‘handlers’: {
‘console’: {
‘level’: ‘DEBUG’,
‘class’: ‘logging.StreamHandler’,
},
},
‘loggers’: {
‘django.contrib.sessions’: {
‘handlers’: [‘console’],
‘level’: ‘DEBUG’,
‘propagate’: True,
},
},
}

ALLOWED_HOSTS = env.list(‘ALLOWED_HOSTS’, default=[‘127.0.0.1’])

CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS = env.list(‘CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS’, default=[‘https://company.example.com’])
SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE = True
CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE = True

# Application definition
INSTALLED_APPS = [
‘jazzmin’,
‘compressor’,
‘django.contrib.admin’,
‘machineLearning’,
‘website’,
‘django.contrib.auth’,
‘django.contrib.contenttypes’,
‘django.contrib.sessions’,
‘django.contrib.messages’,
‘django.contrib.staticfiles’,
‘easyaudit’,
] 

MIDDLEWARE = [
‘django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware’,
‘whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware’,
‘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’,
‘easyaudit.middleware.easyaudit.EasyAuditMiddleware’,
]

ROOT_URLCONF = ‘Company.urls’

TEMPLATES = [
{
‘BACKEND’: ‘django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates’,
‘DIRS’: [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ‘templates’)],
‘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 = ‘Company.wsgi.application’

# Database
DATABASES = {
‘default’: {
‘ENGINE’: ‘mysql.connector.django’,
‘NAME’: env(‘DB_NAME’),
‘USER’: env(‘DB_USER’),
‘PASSWORD’: env(‘DB_PASSWORD’),
‘HOST’: env(‘DB_HOST’, default=‘localhost’),
‘PORT’: env(‘DB_PORT’, default=‘3306’),
‘OPTIONS’: {
‘sql_mode’: ‘STRICT_ALL_TABLES’,
},
},
}

# Email Configuration
EMAIL_BACKEND = ‘django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend’
EMAIL_HOST = ‘smtp.gmail.com’  # Replace with your email provider’s SMTP server
EMAIL_PORT = 587  # Use 465 for SSL
EMAIL_USE_TLS = True  # Use TLS for secure connection
EMAIL_HOST_USER = env(‘EMAIL_HOST_USER’)
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = env(‘EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD’)
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = env(‘DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL’)

# Site URL
SITE_URL = env(‘SITE_URL’)

# Authentication settings
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
LANGUAGE_CODE = ‘en-us’
TIME_ZONE = ‘UTC’

USE_I18N = True
USE_TZ = True

# Custom login and redirect URL
LOGIN_URL = ‘/account/signin/’
LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = ‘/account/profile/’

# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
STATIC_URL = ‘/static/’
STATICFILES_DIRS = [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ‘static’)]
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ‘assets’)

# Enable gzip compression and caching
STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'

# Media files
MEDIA_URL = ‘/media/’
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ‘media’)

# Default primary key field type
DEFAULT_AUTO_FIELD = ‘django.db.models.BigAutoField’

URLs.py:

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from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path
from . import views
from website.views import send_email_view, secure_email_read
from django.shortcuts import render
from django.urls import path, include
from django.contrib.auth import views as auth_views

from website import views

# Custom error handlers
def custom_error_403(request, exception):
    return render(request, ‘account/403.html’, status=403)

def custom_error_404(request, exception=None):
    return render(request, ‘account/404.html’, status=404)

def custom_error_500(request):
    return render(request, ‘account/500.html’, status=500)

# Assign custom error handlers
handler403 = custom_error_403
handler404 = custom_error_404
handler500 = custom_error_500

urlpatterns = [
    path(‘’, views.index, name=‘index’),
    path(‘account/signup/’, views.signup, name=‘signup’),
    path(‘account/signin/’, views.signin, name=‘signin’),
    path(‘account/forgot/’, views.forgot, name=‘forgot’),
    path(‘account/dashboard/’, views.dashboard, name=‘dashboard’),
    path(‘account/profile/’, views.profile_view, name=‘profile’),
    path(‘account/notification/’, views.notifications, name=‘notification’),
    path(‘signout/’, views.signout, name=‘signout’),
    path(‘send-email/’, send_email_view, name=‘send_email’),
    # Email tracking URL
    path(‘secure-email-read/int:email_id/’, secure_email_read, name=‘secure_email_read’),
    # Password reset URLs
    path(‘account/password_reset/’, auth_views.PasswordResetView.as_view(template_name=‘account/forgot.html’), name=‘password_reset’),
    path(‘account/password_reset/done/’, auth_views.PasswordResetDoneView.as_view(template_name=‘account/password_reset_done.html’), name=‘password_reset_done’),
    path(‘account/reset///’, auth_views.PasswordResetConfirmView.as_view(template_name=‘account/password_reset_confirm.html’), name=‘password_reset_confirm’),
    path(‘account/reset/done/’, auth_views.PasswordResetCompleteView.as_view(template_name=‘account/password_reset_complete.html’), name=‘password_reset_complete’),
]

if settings.DEBUG:
    urlpatterns += static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
    urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)

I am looking for a viable solution to fix these errors in production. Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated.