Not showing Media images in Django however Static files work

Question

I am out of my depth and would like to ask you about my challenge with some images that won't load on my project. Images and CSS from the static folder get loaded successfully. But my images from the media folder are what is not showing up with error

GET /images/uploads/2021/02/11/pexels-carly-jamieson-1478450.jpg HTTP/1.1" 404

I have already done python manage.py collectstatic plenty of times. For media files I use ckeditor image uploader. Files get uploaded fine, I can see them in the media folder. The thing is, this used to work before and now it just does not.

settings.py

import os
from pathlib import Path
from decouple import config

BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
DEBUG = config('DEBUG', default=False, cast=bool)
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['localhost']

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    #my apps
    'blog',
    'ckeditor',
    'ckeditor_uploader',
]

CKEDITOR_UPLOAD_PATH = "uploads/"

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',
]

ROOT_URLCONF = 'portfolio.urls'

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'portfolio/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 = 'portfolio.wsgi.application'
LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'
USE_I18N = True
USE_L10N = True
USE_TZ = True

# Heroku settings
cwd = os.getcwd()
if cwd == '/app' or cwd[:4] == '/tmp':
    import dj_database_url
    DATABASES = {
'default': dj_database_url.config(default='postgres://localhost')
}
SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')

STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = [
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')
]
MEDIA_URL = '/images/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media/')
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'assets/')

urls.py:

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include
from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls.static import static

app_name = "blog"

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', include('blog.urls', namespace='blog')),
    path('ckeditor/', include('ckeditor_uploader.urls'))
] + static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)

models.py:

from django.db import models
from portfolio.utils import unique_slug_generator
from django.db.models.signals import pre_save
#from ckeditor.fields import RichTextField
from ckeditor_uploader.fields import RichTextUploadingField

class BlogPost(models.Model):
    """A blog entry"""
    title = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    slug = models.SlugField(max_length=100, null=True, blank=True)
    intro = models.TextField(blank='True')
    text = RichTextUploadingField()
    date_added = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

    class Meta:
        ordering = ['-date_added']

    def __str__(self):
        return self.title

def slug_generator(sender, instance, *args, **kwargs):
    if not instance.slug:
        instance.slug = unique_slug_generator(instance)

pre_save.connect(slug_generator, sender=BlogPost)

class Contact(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    email = models.EmailField()
    subject = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    message = models.TextField()

    def __str__(self):
        return self.name

I've tried different suggestions from SO with no luck. I want to sincerely ask all of you Django masters for your expertise and show me the way to make the images I upload to display. I really appreciate your kindness and generosity!

Answer 1

settings.py:

CKEDITOR_UPLOAD_PATH = 'uploads/'
CKEDITOR_IMAGE_BACKEND = "pillow"
CKEDITOR_THUMBNAIL_SIZE = (500, 500)
CKEDITOR_IMAGE_QUALITY = 40
CKEDITOR_BROWSE_SHOW_DIRS = True
CKEDITOR_JQUERY_URL = 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js'

set image backend as pillow