How to request a permission on Android

I'm new to using Android Studio, just want to make a basic app for myself, and I can't request any permission on my phone, it just refuses automatically.

I'm using Kotlin but also tried in Java (as I studied Java years ago but never learned to code on Android).

My phone is a OnePlus Nord 2t (if that makes any difference), and is using API 33. My project has a minimum SDK of API 30.

I already made sure the build.gradle minSDK and targetSdk are ok, and added this line to the AndroidManifest.xml :

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
// also tried to add tools:node="replace" and tools:remove="android:maxSdkVersion" because I saw people mentioning it

Here's the whole code I have for now

package com.example.testpermissions

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import android.os.Bundle
import android.Manifest
import android.content.pm.PackageManager
import android.widget.Toast
import androidx.core.app.ActivityCompat
import androidx.core.content.ContextCompat

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    private val READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE_PERMISSION_CODE = 101

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        // Check if the permission is already granted
        if (ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(
                this,
                Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
            ) == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED
        ) {
            // Permission is already granted.
            Toast.makeText(this, "already ok", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
        } else {
            Toast.makeText(this, "prompting", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
            // Permission is not granted.
            ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(
                this,
                arrayOf(Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE),
                READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE_PERMISSION_CODE
            )
        }
    }

    override fun onRequestPermissionsResult(
        requestCode: Int,
        permissions: Array<out String>,
        grantResults: IntArray
    ) {
        super.onRequestPermissionsResult(requestCode, permissions, grantResults)

        if (requestCode == READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE_PERMISSION_CODE) {
            if (grantResults.isNotEmpty() && grantResults[0] == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
                // Permission granted.
                Toast.makeText(this, "ok", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
            } else {
                Toast.makeText(this, "not ok", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
                // Permission denied by the user.
            }
        }
    }
}

As you can see I used Toasts to see what's working or not, and all I have is "prompting" then "not ok", and the app continues running normally after that.

Thanks you in advance for your help.

If you go to the documentation, you will see that:

Note: Starting in API level 33, this permission has no effect. If your app accesses other apps' media files, request one or more of these permissions instead: READ_MEDIA_IMAGES, READ_MEDIA_VIDEO, READ_MEDIA_AUDIO. Learn more about the storage permissions that are associated with media files.

Therefore, if you require to access specific media files, you need to ask for a different permission.

• READ_MEDIA_IMAGES
• READ_MEDIA_VIDEO
• READ_MEDIA_AUDIO