Set Up Django Storages and Cloudflare R2

1. Create and Configure a Cloudflare R2 Bucket

Step 1: Access Cloudflare Dashboard

  • Log in to your Cloudflare dashboard.
  • Select your account and go to R2 under the “Storage” section.

Step 2: Create an R2 Bucket

  • Click + Create Bucket.
  • Provide a unique bucket name.
  • Choose your preferred region (optional).
  • Choose storage class Standard.
  • Click Create Bucket.

Step 3: Configure Access Keys

  • Go to API Tokens or R2 Keys section.
  • Create an Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.
  • Save these credentials securely for programmatic access.

2. Set Up a Public Domain for Your R2 Bucket

For Domains Managed in Cloudflare (DNS Zone in Cloudflare)

  • In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to your R2 bucket settings.
  • Under the Custom Domains section, add your desired domain or subdomain (e.g., images.example.com).
  • Cloudflare will automatically create the required DNS records for you.
  • This sets up the domain to serve content from your R2 bucket via Cloudflare’s CDN and proxy.

For Domains NOT Managed in Cloudflare (External DNS Zone)

  • To use a custom domain for R2 with DNS outside Cloudflare, you need a Business Plan or higher.
  • This enables Partial CNAME Setup allowing you to proxy subdomains via Cloudflare without full zone transfer.
  • More info in Cloudflare official docs: Partial (CNAME) setup

3. Configure Django to Use Cloudflare R2 with django-storages

You can use django-storages with the S3 backend configured to point to Cloudflare R2, which is fully S3-compatible.

Step 1: Install dependencies 

pip install django-storages boto3

Step 2: Update your settings.py 

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ...
    'storages',
]

# Use custom storage backend for media files
DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE = 'storages.backends.s3boto3.S3Boto3Storage'

# AWS S3 compatible settings for Cloudflare R2
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = '<YOUR_R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID>'
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = '<YOUR_R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY>'
AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME = '<YOUR_R2_BUCKET_NAME>'
AWS_S3_ENDPOINT_URL = 'https://<accountid>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com'  # Replace <accountid>
AWS_S3_REGION_NAME = 'auto'  # R2 ignores this but boto3 requires a value
AWS_S3_ADDRESSING_STYLE = "virtual"  # Use virtual-hosted style addressing

# Optional: configure URL for serving media files via your custom domain (Cloudflare proxy)
MEDIA_URL = 'https://images.example.com/'  # Your custom CNAME domain configured in Cloudflare DNS

# Optional: additional boto3 settings for improved compatibility
AWS_S3_SIGNATURE_VERSION = 's3v4'

4. Migrate Images from AWS S3 or EC2 Server to Cloudflare R2

Migrating from AWS S3

  1. Use AWS CLI to download:
aws s3 sync s3://source-bucket-name ./local-folder
  1. Upload to R2 using rclone configured with R2 credentials:
rclone copy ./local-folder r2:your-r2-bucket-name --s3-endpoint=https://<accountid>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com

Migrating from EC2 Server

  1. Copy images from EC2 instance to local:
scp -r ubuntu@ec2-ip:/path/to/images ./local-folder
  1. Upload to R2 using rclone:
rclone copy ./local-folder r2:your-r2-bucket-name --s3-endpoint=https://<accountid>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com