title: Django 3.0 MEDIA_ROOT and MEDIA_URL raise ImproperlyConfigured exception
body: <p>I am developing a Django app where the users have profiles, and they can upload a profile picture, the pictures will be stored inside media/profile_pics/ and media is located in my root project's directory. I followed the Django docs [1]: <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/howto/static-files/#serving-files-uploaded-by-a-user-during-development" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/howto/static-files/#serving-files-uploaded-by-a-user-during-development</a>
  to serve uploaded media files during development but I keep getting an exception that says:</p>
  <p>`</p>
  <pre><code>Exception in thread django-main-thread:
    File &quot;/Users/OpenMindes/Dev/web/django/mylatestprotfolio-django/src/portfolio/urls.py&quot;, line 27, in &lt;module&gt;
      urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
    File &quot;/Users/OpenMindes/Dev/web/django/mylatestprotfolio-django/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/conf/urls/static.py&quot;, line 22, in static
      raise ImproperlyConfigured(&quot;Empty static prefix not permitted&quot;)
  django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Empty static prefix not permitted
  </code></pre>
  <p><code> My project's settings file looks like that (I hided the secret key):</code></p>
  <pre><code>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__)))
  #sekret key : i hide it
  # 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',
      #own apps
      'my_portfolio.apps.MyPortfolioConfig',
      'blog.apps.BlogConfig',
      'crud.apps.CrudConfig',
      'users.apps.UsersConfig',
      #third party
      'widget_tweaks',
      'crispy_forms',
      'django_cleanup',
  ]
  
  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 = 'portfolio.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 = 'portfolio.wsgi.application'
  
  
  # Database
  # https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/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/3.0/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',
      },
  ]
  
  LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
  
  TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'
  
  USE_I18N = True
  
  USE_L10N = True
  
  USE_TZ = True
  
  
  # Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
  STATIC_URL = '/static/'
  MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')
  MEIDA_URL = '/media/'
  #tell our crispy form what bootstrap version to use 
  CRISPY_TEMPLATE_PACK = 'bootstrap4'
  #redirect the user to the home page when successfully loged in
  LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = 'blog-home'
  LOGIN_URL = 'login'
  </code></pre>
  <p><code>And my project urls.py file looks like this:</code></p>
  <pre><code>from django.contrib import admin
  from django.urls import path, include
  # Import the users views
  from users import views as user_views
  from django.contrib.auth import views as auth_views
  # To serve files during dev
  from django.conf import settings
  from django.conf.urls.static import static
  urlpatterns = [
      path('',include('my_portfolio.urls')),
      path('blog/',include('blog.urls')),
      path('crud/',include('crud.urls')),
      path('register/', user_views.register, name='user-register'),
          #login and logout views
      path('login/', auth_views.LoginView.as_view(template_name='users/login.html'), name='login'),
      path('logout/', auth_views.LogoutView.as_view(template_name='users/logout.html'), name='logout'),
      #profiles
      path('profile/', user_views.profile, name='profile'),
      path('testing/', user_views.testingForm, name='testing'),
      path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
  ] 
  
  if settings.DEBUG:
      urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
  </code></pre>
  <p>`
  I've looked at many solution provided in this platform but none of them seem to be working</p>