Laravel：未能打开蒸汽：没有这样的文件或目录

Question

I added file upload feature to my controller but, it isn't working. I keep running into this error.

failed to open stream: No such file or directory

I've linked the storage, cleared cache and virtually everything I know, can someone help me figure what's wrong.

Controller

class CandidatesController extends Controller
{
    public function create(Request $data)
    {
        try {
            $this->validate($data, [
                'middle_name' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'],
                'what_i_do' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'],
                'phone' => ['required', 'string', 'max:20'],
                'age' => ['required', 'date', 'max:255'],
                'gender' => [
                    'required',
                    Rule::in(['male', 'female', 'others']),
                ],
                'religion' => ['nullable', 'string', 'max:255'],
                'address_1' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'],
                'address_2' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'],
                'city' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'],
                'highest_qualification' => [
                    'required',
                    Rule::in([
                        'no formal education', 'primary school', 'secondary school', 'technical school', 'nce', 'nd1',
                        'nd2', 'bsc', 'pgd'
                    ]),
                ],
                'discipline' => ['nullable', 'string', 'max:255'],
                'lga' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'],
                'state' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'],
                'country' => ['required', 'string', 'max:255'],
                'status' => [
                    'required',
                    Rule::in(['hired', 'hunting', 'vacation']),
                ],
                'skills' => ['required', 'string'],
                'about' => ['required', 'string'],
                'fb_url' => ['nullable', 'string'],
                'twt_url' => ['nullable', 'string'],
                'ig_url' => ['nullable', 'string'],
                'ext_url' => ['nullable', 'string'],
                'lnkd_url' => ['required', 'string'],
                'img_url' => ['nullable', 'mimes:jpeg,png,jpg,gif,svg', 'max:2048'],
                'cv_url' => ['nullable', 'mimes:pdf,doc,docx', 'max:4000'],
            ]);

            if ($data->hasFile('img_url')) {
                $user_img = $data->img_url;
                $ext = $user_img->getClientOriginalExtension();
                $pro_img = random_bytes(7).'.'.$ext;
                $img_path = $data->file('img_url')->storeAs('public/pics', $pro_img);
            } else {
                $img_path = 'default_img.jpg';
            }

            if ($data->hasFile('cv_url')) {
                $user_cv = $data->file('cv_url');
                $cv_ext = $user_cv->getClientOriginalExtension();
                $cand_cv = random_bytes(7).'.'.$cv_ext;
                $cv_path = $data->file('cv_url')->storeAs('public/cvs', $cand_cv);
            } else {
                $cv_path = 'no file uploaded';
            }

            return redirect('/');
        } catch (Illuminate\Database\QueryException $th) {
            return redirect('/candidate-register')->withError($th->getMessage())->withInput();
        }
    }
}

Don't mind me validating in the controller; I'm just trying to get everything working before cleaning it up