PHP - Laravel is not storing files from request although the response is 200

Question

Trying to upload a photo locally using Laravel with Vuejs

1. I am sending the file from the Vue component to the backend like the code below:

        <div class="form-group">
          <label for="photo">photo</label>
          <input
            type="file"
            class="form-control"
            id="photo"
            name="photo"
            ref="inputFile"
            
          />
        <hr />
        </div>
        <button 
        type="submit" 
        class="btn btn-primary">
        Add
        </button>
      </form>

and this is the script in the same component

import { mapActions } from "vuex";

export default {

  data() {
    return {
      category: {
        photo: this.$refs.inputFile,
        csrf: document.querySelector('meta[name="csrf-token"]').getAttribute('content'),
        config: {
          headers: { 'content-type': 'multipart/form-data' }
        }
      },
    };
  },
  methods: {
    ...mapActions(["createCategory"]),
    submitForm() {
      const form_data = new FormData();
      form_data.append('photo', this.category.photo);
      form_data.append('csrf', this.category.csrf);
      // The following method is the mapped action
      this.createCategory(form_data);
    }
  },
};
</script>

The mutations.js file

createCategory(state, category) {
        axios.post('http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/categories', category).then(res => {
            console.log("Response: " + res);
        }).catch(res => {
            console.log("Exp: " + res);
        });
    }

The actions.js file

createCategory(context, category) {
        context.commit('createCategory', category);
}

2. At the backend I am using categories driver in > filesystems.php as the following:

'categories' => [
            'driver' => 'local',
            'root' => base_path() . '/images/categories',
            'url' => env('APP_URL').'/public',
            'visibility' => 'public',
        ],

3. uploading the file using $request->photo->store method as the code in the following Controller

public function store(CategoryRequest $request) {
        try {
            
            // Start Uploading File
            $file = "";
            if($request->has('photo')) {
                $file = $request->photo;
                $folder = 'categories';
                $file->store('/', $folder);
                $filename = $file->hashName();
                $path = 'images/' . $folder . '/' . $filename;
                
            }
            // End Uploading File
            

            
            // Start creating category
            $category = new Category();
            $category->photo = $path;
            $category->save();
            // End creating category

            return response()->json(['message' => 'Created Successfully'], 200);
        } catch(\Exception $ex) {
            return $ex;
        }
    }