diff --git a/ckan/config/deployment.ini_tmpl b/ckan/config/deployment.ini_tmpl
index 010757e81dc..8d4882aad11 100644
--- a/ckan/config/deployment.ini_tmpl
+++ b/ckan/config/deployment.ini_tmpl
@@ -201,6 +201,8 @@ ckan.feeds.author_link =
 # CKAN allows users to upload files directly to file storage either on the local
 # file system or to online ‘cloud’ storage like Amazon S3 or Google Storage.
 #
+# If you are using local file storage, remember to set ckan.site_url.
+#
 # To enable cloud storage (Google or S3), first run: pip install boto
 #
 # @see http://docs.ckan.org/en/latest/filestore.html
diff --git a/doc/filestore.rst b/doc/filestore.rst
index a68a2ba560f..a670fba98a4 100644
--- a/doc/filestore.rst
+++ b/doc/filestore.rst
@@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ after the ``[app:main]`` line::
    # directory on disk for data storage (should be empty)
    ofs.storage_dir = /my/path/to/storage/root/directory
 
+You must also set ``ckan.site_url`` to your CKAN instance's base URL, e.g.
+``http://scotdata.ckan.net``.
+
 Cloud Storage
 -------------