diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 9b9103d85b..1c063f7174 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ static/generated/emoji
 static/generated/github-contributors.json
 static/locale/language_options.json
 /node_modules
+/staticfiles.json
 npm-debug.log
 *.mo
 var/*
diff --git a/tools/build-release-tarball b/tools/build-release-tarball
index 37c8e31ba8..80110e65f7 100755
--- a/tools/build-release-tarball
+++ b/tools/build-release-tarball
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ find prod-static/serve/generated/emoji/images/emoji/ -regex '.*\.[0-9a-f]+\.png'
 
 cd "$TMPDIR"
 
-tar --append -f "$TARBALL" "$prefix/prod-static" "$prefix/build_id" "$prefix/version"
+tar --append -f "$TARBALL" "$prefix/prod-static" "$prefix/build_id" "$prefix/version" "$prefix/staticfiles.json"
 
 rm -rf "$prefix"
 
diff --git a/tools/update-prod-static b/tools/update-prod-static
index 64028d08c9..dcbc8c91f3 100755
--- a/tools/update-prod-static
+++ b/tools/update-prod-static
@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@ subprocess.check_call(['./tools/minify-js'] +
 subprocess.check_call(['./manage.py', 'collectstatic', '--no-default-ignore',
                        '--noinput', '-i', 'assets'],
                       stdout=fp, stderr=fp)
+if not settings.PRODUCTION:
+    # When building a release tarball, we need to move staticfiles.json
+    subprocess.check_call(['mv', 'prod-static/serve/staticfiles.json', 'staticfiles.json'],
+                          stdout=fp, stderr=fp)
 
 # Compile translation strings to generate `.mo` files.
 subprocess.check_call(['./manage.py', 'compilemessages'],
diff --git a/zerver/storage.py b/zerver/storage.py
index 21bdd2cf99..192b018748 100644
--- a/zerver/storage.py
+++ b/zerver/storage.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import shutil
 from typing import List, Any, Tuple
 
 from django.conf import settings
-from django.contrib.staticfiles.storage import CachedFilesMixin, StaticFilesStorage
+from django.contrib.staticfiles.storage import ManifestStaticFilesStorage
 from pipeline.storage import PipelineMixin
 
 class AddHeaderMixin(object):
@@ -76,8 +76,24 @@ class RemoveUnminifiedFilesMixin(object):
 
         return []
 
+if settings.PRODUCTION:
+    # This is a hack to use staticfiles.json from within the
+    # deployment, rather than a directory under STATIC_ROOT.  By doing
+    # so, we can use a different copy of staticfiles.json for each
+    # deployment, which ensures that we always use the correct static
+    # assets for each deployment.
+    ManifestStaticFilesStorage.manifest_name = os.path.join(settings.DEPLOY_ROOT,
+                                                            "staticfiles.json")
+    orig_path = ManifestStaticFilesStorage.path
+
+    def path(self, name):
+        # type: (Any, str) -> str
+        if name == ManifestStaticFilesStorage.manifest_name:
+            return name
+        return orig_path(self, name)
+    ManifestStaticFilesStorage.path = path
 
 class ZulipStorage(PipelineMixin,
                    AddHeaderMixin, RemoveUnminifiedFilesMixin,
-                   CachedFilesMixin, StaticFilesStorage):
+                   ManifestStaticFilesStorage):
     pass