My app is storing filenames in the database as /private/var/tmp/phpB5fgal etc..

Apologies if this has been discussed before but I can't find anything in the forums.

I have linked public/storage using php artisan storage:link and this is my method

public function store(StoreJobRequest $request) {

    $fields = $request->validated();
    if ($request->hasFile('file')) {
        $fields['job_spec'] = $request->file('job_spec')->store('files/job-specs');
        //$fields['job_spec'] = Storage::disk('public')->put('files/job-specs', $request->job_spec);
    }

    $request->user()->jobs()->create($fields);
    
    return redirect()->route('jobs.index')->with('status', 'Job created successfully');

}

But when i check the database its storing the job_spec column with the private/var/tmp/random_string. I also can't see the uploaded file in my public/storage directory. I have tried different ways of storing the file but still get the same the result.

My local .env has FILESYSTEM_DISK=public

Can anyone help me? It's probably a really stupid error.