laravel/framework · error · InvalidArgumentException

Unknown visibility: .

Error message

Unknown visibility: {$visibility}.

What it means

Thrown by FilesystemAdapter::parseVisibility() when $visibility is non-null and does not match FilesystemContract::VISIBILITY_PUBLIC ('public') or VISIBILITY_PRIVATE ('private'). The match expression maps those two constants to league/flysystem Visibility enum values; anything else is rejected before reaching the adapter.

Solutions

1. Pass only 'public' or 'private' (the exact string constants).
2. Validate user-supplied visibility against an allow-list before calling.
3. Pass null to let the disk use its configured default visibility.
4. Reference FilesystemContract::VISIBILITY_PUBLIC / VISIBILITY_PRIVATE to avoid magic strings.

Example fix

// before
Storage::setVisibility($path, $request->input('visibility'));

// after
$visibility = in_array($request->input('visibility'), ['public','private'], true)
    ? $request->input('visibility')
    : null;
Storage::setVisibility($path, $visibility);

if (! in_array($visibility, ['public','private', null], true)) {
    throw new InvalidArgumentException('Visibility must be public, private, or null.');
}
Storage::setVisibility($path, $visibility);

function isValidVisibility(?string $visibility): bool {
    return in_array($visibility, ['public','private', null], true);
}

try {
    Storage::setVisibility($path, $visibility);
} catch (\InvalidArgumentException $e) {
    Storage::setVisibility($path, null); // disk default
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Storage::putFileAs(..., $visibility), Storage::setVisibility($path, $visibility), or any operation that forwards visibility where $visibility is e.g. 'protected', 'readonly', 'PUBLIC' (wrong case), or an empty string.

Common situations: Typos or wrong case ('Public', 'PUBLIC'); passing a value sourced from unvalidated request input; mismatched enum from another library; legacy code using 'protected'.

Related errors

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AI-assisted analysis of laravel/framework@e0f6eb3518 (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c3ee33b97acafa11. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/Illuminate/Filesystem/FilesystemAdapter.php:1094

    /**
     * Parse the given visibility value.
     *
     * @param  string|null  $visibility
     * @return string|null
     *
     * @throws \InvalidArgumentException
     */
    protected function parseVisibility($visibility)
    {
        if (is_null($visibility)) {
            return;
        }

        return match ($visibility) {
            FilesystemContract::VISIBILITY_PUBLIC => Visibility::PUBLIC,
            FilesystemContract::VISIBILITY_PRIVATE => Visibility::PRIVATE,
            default => throw new InvalidArgumentException("Unknown visibility: {$visibility}."),
        };
    }

    /**
     * Define a custom callback that generates file download responses.
     *
     * @param  \Closure  $callback
     * @return void
     */
    public function serveUsing(Closure $callback)
    {
        $this->serveCallback = $callback;
    }

    /**
     * Define a custom temporary URL builder callback.
     *
     * @param  \Closure  $callback

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