Nginx showing 404 Not Found instead of protected media

[pitagora04]

I'm getting Nginx 404 Not Found instead of protected media which is image in my case.
Kindly asking for a help because I don't understand what I am doing wrong.

In settings.py I have this:

PROTECTED_MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'protected')
PROTECTED_MEDIA_URL = "/protected"
PROTECTED_MEDIA_SERVER = "nginx"  # Defaults to "django"
PROTECTED_MEDIA_LOCATION_PREFIX = "/internal" # Prefix used in nginx config
PROTECTED_MEDIA_AS_DOWNLOADS = False  # Controls inclusion of a Content-Disposition header

In django I have this:

@login_required
def my_media_access(request, media_object, file_relpath):
    # some code to check if access is granted
    if access_granted:
        return protected_view(request, file_relpath, server = PROTECTED_MEDIA_SERVER, as_download = PROTECTED_MEDIA_AS_DOWNLOADS)
    return HttpResponseForbidden('Not authorized to access this media.')

In Nginx configuration I have:

    location /internal {
        internal;
        root /home/myuser/myproject/protected;
    }

So the files are in folder /home/myuser/myproject/protected.
Idea is that when you access URL https://example.com/protected/abc/image/4813-image1.png then Django recognizes this path and calls protected_view in django-protected-media.

This are the test results for logged in user which is allowed to see asset:

• opening https://example.com/protected/abc/image/4813-image1.png - 404 Not Found (nginx) which is NOT OK, image should be shown
• opening https://example.com/internal/abc/image/4813-image1.png - 404 Not Found (nginx) which is OK
• opening https://example.com/protected/abc/image/4813-image1_WRONG_PATH.png - Django message that there is no route which is OK

[pitagora04]

My fault.
I have to use alias instead of root - see explanation HERE.

Solution in my case was to change NGINX configuration to:

    location /internal/ {
        internal;
        alias /home/myuser/myproject/protected/;
    }