Q:

heroku local static not found

'heroku local' can not find static files, but 'python manage.py runserver' finds the static files without issue. Can you please help me troubleshoot this issue?
settings.py reads: 
PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'static')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.django.GzipManifestStaticFilesStorage'

I run collectstatic and the static files are copied to STATIC_ROOT:
python manage.py collectstatic

manage.py runserver' finds the static files without issue:
python manage.py runserver

While 'heroku local' returns a warning 'not found': 
11:52:04 AM web.1 |  [19/May/2016 10:52:04] WARNING [django.request:170] Not Found: /static/admin/css/base.css
11:52:04 AM web.1 |  [19/May/2016 10:52:04] WARNING [django.request:170] Not Found: /static/admin/css/base.css
11:52:04 AM web.1 |  [19/May/2016 10:52:04] WARNING [django.request:170] Not Found: /static/admin/css/login.css
11:52:04 AM web.1 |  [19/May/2016 10:52:04] WARNING [django.request:170] Not Found: /static/admin/css/login.css

Not sure what's happening here. Both 'heroku local' and 'manage.py runserver' should see the static files. 
Note: 
I am using Django==1.8.2 and settings.py contains:
import os
import dj_database_url

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))
PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))

SECRET_KEY = 'secretkey'

DEBUG = True

ALLOWED_HOSTS = []

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    # 'django.contrib.sites',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'registration',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'dbbackup',
    'listable',
    'rest_framework',
    'bootstrap3',
    'django_crontab',
)

ACCOUNT_ACTIVATION_DAYS = 7 # One-week activation window; you may, of course, use a different value.
REGISTRATION_AUTO_LOGIN = True # Automatically log the user in.

MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.SessionAuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
)

ROOT_URLCONF = 'track.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 = 'track.wsgi.application'

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'
USE_I18N = True
USE_L10N = True
USE_TZ = True

FIXTURE_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'fixtures'),
)

MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')
MEDIA_URL = 'media/'

REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    # Use Django's standard `django.contrib.auth` permissions,
    # or allow read-only access for unauthenticated users.
    'DEFAULT_PERMISSION_CLASSES': [
        'rest_framework.permissions.DjangoModelPermissionsOrAnonReadOnly'
    ],
    'DEFAULT_PARSER_CLASSES': (
        'rest_framework_xml.parsers.XMLParser',
    ),
    'DEFAULT_RENDERER_CLASSES': (
        'rest_framework_xml.renderers.XMLRenderer',
    ),
}

DATABASES = {'default' : dj_database_url.config(default='postgres://testuser:testpw@localhost:5432/testdb')}

STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'static')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
)

STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.django.GzipManifestStaticFilesStorage'

BOOTSTRAP3 = {
    'include_jquery': True,
}

A:

The solution that works for me (after 24 hours+):  
1) install the most recent stable version of whitenoise (I was working from an old example, which required whitenoise==2.0.6)
2) make sure you add whitenoise to MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES: 
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware',
)

Note: adding 'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware' to the middleware class when using whitenoise==2.0.6 will throw an error. You will need to upgrade to the latest stable version (currently whitenoise==3.1)

