Laravel Storage Link Not Working in Hostinger Shared Hosting

Understanding Laravel Storage Link

Laravel's storage link command creates a symbolic link from the public/storage directory to the storage/app/public directory:

php artisan storage:link

This allows publicly accessible files (like user uploads) to be stored in the storage/app/public directory while being accessible through the public/storage URL path. If the link already exists, the command will notify you.

The Issue on Hostinger Shared Hosting

Everything seems fine when you run the command on Hostinger - no errors appear. However, there's a problem: the command doesn't actually create a working symbolic link to public/storage.

Your files remain inaccessible even though Laravel says the link was created successfully.

The Solution

To properly create the storage link on Hostinger shared hosting, run this command instead:

ln -s $(pwd)/storage/app/public $(pwd)/public/storage

This command will solve the storage link issue and your files will be accessible immediately.

Why This Works

• Uses absolute paths via $(pwd) instead of relative paths
• Creates a proper symbolic link that Hostinger's file system actually recognizes
• Bypasses the compatibility issues between Laravel's artisan command and Hostinger's environment