Storage::get() results in a FileNotFoundException - php

Question

I'm trying to load a external JSON file into my laravel application. Below you will find a snippet of my code.
$location = __DIR__.'/config.json';
echo $location; // Results in correct file location
echo File::exists($location); // Return 1
echo Storage::get($location); // Throws a FileNotFound Exception
How can the File::exists() method return true and the Storage::get() throw an exception?
My config/filesystems.php file:
<?php
return [
'default' => env('FILESYSTEM_DRIVER', 'local'),
'cloud' => env('FILESYSTEM_CLOUD', 's3'),
'disks' => [
'local' => [
'driver' => 'local',
'root' => storage_path('app'),
],
'public' => [
'driver' => 'local',
'root' => storage_path('app/public'),
'url' => env('APP_URL').'/storage',
'visibility' => 'public',
],
's3' => [
'driver' => 's3',
'key' => env('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID'),
'secret' => env('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'),
'region' => env('AWS_DEFAULT_REGION'),
'bucket' => env('AWS_BUCKET'),
],
],
];

Answer 1

Why use the Storage class for this? That class is specifically for accessing the storage folder or external file servers. You stored your file right next to your controller/code, so it's probably easier to do it the old-fashioned way.
$location = __DIR__.'/config.json';
if (File::exists($location)) {
$string = file_get_contents($location);
$json = json_decode($string, true);
// logic
} else {
// Do something
}

Answer 2

You can try accessing it through the file facade by
File::get($location);
The error is probably because Storage is trying to access the file from its default path (./project/storage/app) plus what you send it. My best advice, is to add a new disk
like this
// config/filesystems.php
'customDrive' => [
'driver' => 'local',
'root' => base_path(), // here put your full path
],
and acess it through
Storage::disk("customDrive")->get("config.json");
Source https://laravel.com/docs/5.6/filesystem