Laravel 5.8: Call to a member function update() on null - php

Question

I'm currently learning Laravel 5.8 and creating instagram clone app and I've been having an issue with updating my profile details. Whenever I hit "Update profile", it gives off an error - "Call to a member function update() on null". The issue seems to be in public function update(). I've looked up other threads and can't seem to fix this issue, so any help would be greatly appreciated!
Here's my code:
View:
#section('content')
<div class="container">
<form action="/profile/{{ $user->id }}" enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post" >
#csrf
#method('PATCH')
<div class="row">
<div class="col-8 offset-2">
<div class="row pb-3">
<h1>Edit profile</h1>
</div>
<div class="form-group row">
<label for="title" class="col-form-label"><strong>Title</strong></label>
<input id="title" type="text" class="form-control #error('title') is-invalid #enderror" name="title" value="{{ old('title') ?? $user->profile['title'] }}" required autocomplete="title" autofocus>
#error('title')
<span class="invalid-feedback" role="alert">
<strong>{{ $title }}</strong>
</span>
#enderror
</div>
<div class="form-group row">
<label for="description" class="col-form-label"><strong>Description</strong></label>
<input id="description" type="text" class="form-control #error('description') is-invalid #enderror" name="description" value="{{ old('description') ?? $user->profile['description']}}" required autocomplete="description" autofocus>
#error('description')
<span class="invalid-feedback" role="alert">
<strong>{{ $description }}</strong>
</span>
#enderror
</div>
<div class="row">
<label for="photo" class="col-form-label">Select Profile Picture</label>
<input type="file" class="form-control-file" id="photo" name="photo">
#error('photo')
<strong>{{ $message }}</strong>
#enderror
</div>
<div class="row pt-3">
<button class="btn btn-primary">
Update Profile
</button>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</form>
</div>
#endsection
Route:
Auth::routes();
Route::get('/profile/{user}', 'ProfileController#index')->name('profile.show');
Route::get('/profile/{user}/edit', 'ProfileController#edit')->name('profile.edit');
Route::patch('/profile/{user}', 'ProfileController#update')->name('profile.update');```
Controller:
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use App\User;
use App\Profile;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
class ProfileController extends Controller
{
public function index(User $user){
return view('profile.index', [
'user' => $user,
]);
}
public function edit(User $user){
return view('profile.edit', [
'user' => $user,
]);
}
public function update(User $user){
$data = request()->validate([
'title' => 'required',
'description' => 'required',
'photo' => '',
]);
auth()->user()->profile->update($data);
return redirect("/storage/ {$user->id}");
}
}
Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

try passing the user you are editing as you have passed them in the routes., The error means you want to update a user but you haven't specified which user you are updating.
try doing something like this:
public function validateUser(){
return request()->validate([
'title' => 'required',
'description' => 'required',
'photo' => '',
]);
}
then in the update function do something like this:
public function update($user_id){
return User::where('id',$user_id)->update($this->validateUser());
}

Answer 2

public function update(User $user){
$data = request()->validate([
'title' => 'required',
'description' => 'required',
'photo' => '',
]);
$user->profile()->update($data);
return redirect("/storage/".$user->id);
}
Update Or Insert
Sometimes you may want to update an existing record in the database or create it if no matching record exists. In this scenario, the updateOrInsert method may be used.
User::where('id',$id)->updateOrInsert($data);