Check your current file/directory permission with:

stat -c "%a" /path/to/dir_or_file

To recursively give directories read&execute privileges:

find /path/to/base/dir -type d -exec chmod 755 {} +

To recursively give files read privileges:

find /path/to/base/dir -type f -exec chmod 644 {} +

Or, if there are many objects to process:

chmod 755 $(find /path/to/base/dir -type d)
chmod 644 $(find /path/to/base/dir -type f)

Or, to reduce chmod spawning:

find /path/to/base/dir -type d -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 755 
find /path/to/base/dir -type f -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 644

Source:

• https://superuser.com/questions/91935/how-to-recursively-chmod-all-directories-except-files
• https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.html#files-and-directories
• https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/settings/#file-upload-directory-permissions

You can create a more secure set of permissions if you know your environment and combine who owns the directories/files with chown and then who can do what with chmod.

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In case you need to really ensure how Django will behave when creating directories and files:

settings.py

FILE_UPLOAD_DIRECTORY_PERMISSIONS = 0o755
FILE_UPLOAD_PERMISSIONS = 0o644

It is important that the values are in ocatal base. (prefix 0o).