[SOLVED] Permission Dialog for Kotlin App not showing up

I am making an Android App with Kotlin for a College Assignment. The assignment has a requirement to store an image into an SQLite database. I code in the code to request permissions to access the phone gallery. However, when I test it out the request permissions dialog does not show up, but the code still works some what.

How do I know this? The toast that appears when the user denies permission shows up.

Here is the code I used:

Source Code:

package com.example.final_project

import android.annotation.SuppressLint
import android.app.Activity
import android.content.Intent
import android.content.pm.PackageManager
import android.os.Build
import android.os.Bundle
import android.provider.MediaStore
import android.widget.Button
import android.widget.Toast
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import androidx.core.app.ActivityCompat


class ItemAdder : AppCompatActivity() {

    u/SuppressLint("MissingInflatedId")
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.add_menu)

        val image_button = findViewById<Button>(R.id.image_button)

        image_button.setOnClickListener {
            if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M){
                if (checkSelfPermission(android.Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE)==PackageManager.PERMISSION_DENIED){
                    val permissions = arrayOf(android.Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE)
                    ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(this, permissions, PERMISSION_CODE)
                } else{
                    chooseImageGallery()
                }
            }else{
                chooseImageGallery()
            }
        }
       
    companion object {
        private val IMAGE_CHOOSE = 1000;
        private val PERMISSION_CODE = 10301;
        private val REQUEST_CODE = 13
    }

    private fun chooseImageGallery() {
        // This is irrelevant to the problem
    }

    override fun onRequestPermissionsResult(
        requestCode: Int,
        permissions: Array<out String>,
        grantResults: IntArray
    ) {
        super.onRequestPermissionsResult(requestCode, permissions, grantResults)
        when(requestCode){
            PERMISSION_CODE -> {
                if (grantResults.isNotEmpty() && grantResults[0] == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED){
                    chooseImageGallery()
                }else{
                    Toast.makeText(this,"Permission denied", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
                }
            }
        }
    }

}

Android Manifest:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" android:maxSdkVersion="32"/>

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:dataExtractionRules="@xml/data_extraction_rules"
        android:fullBackupContent="@xml/backup_rules"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/Theme.AppCompat"
        tools:targetApi="31">
        <activity
            android:name=".MainActivity"
            android:exported="true"
            android:label="@string/app_name"
            android:theme="@style/Theme.AppCompat">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <activity
            android:name=".ItemAdder"
            android:exported="false"
            android:theme="@style/Theme.AppCompat"/>
    </application>

</manifest>

Gradle Build:

plugins {
    alias(libs.plugins.android.application)
    alias(libs.plugins.jetbrains.kotlin.android)
}

android {
    namespace = "com.example.final_project"
    compileSdk = 34

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId = "com.example.final_project"
        minSdk = 24
        targetSdk = 34
        versionCode = 1
        versionName = "1.0"

        testInstrumentationRunner = "androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
        vectorDrawables {
            useSupportLibrary = true
        }
    }

    buildTypes {
        release {
            isMinifyEnabled = false
            proguardFiles(
                getDefaultProguardFile("proguard-android-optimize.txt"),
                "proguard-rules.pro"
            )
        }
    }
    compileOptions {
        sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
        targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    }
    kotlinOptions {
        jvmTarget = "1.8"
    }
    buildFeatures {
        compose = true
    }
    composeOptions {
        kotlinCompilerExtensionVersion = "1.5.1"
    }
    packaging {
        resources {
            excludes += "/META-INF/{AL2.0,LGPL2.1}"
        }
    }
}

dependencies {

    implementation(libs.androidx.core.ktx)
    implementation(libs.androidx.lifecycle.runtime.ktx)
    implementation(libs.androidx.activity.compose)
    implementation(platform(libs.androidx.compose.bom))
    implementation(libs.androidx.ui)
    implementation(libs.androidx.ui.graphics)
    implementation(libs.androidx.ui.tooling.preview)
    implementation(libs.androidx.material3)
    implementation(libs.androidx.appcompat)
    implementation(libs.androidx.constraintlayout)
    implementation(libs.androidx.recyclerview)
    implementation(libs.androidx.recyclerview.selection)
    implementation(libs.androidx.cardview)
    testImplementation(libs.junit)
    androidTestImplementation(libs.androidx.junit)
    androidTestImplementation(libs.androidx.espresso.core)
    androidTestImplementation(platform(libs.androidx.compose.bom))
    androidTestImplementation(libs.androidx.ui.test.junit4)
    debugImplementation(libs.androidx.ui.tooling)
    debugImplementation(libs.androidx.ui.test.manifest)
}

I expected a permissions dialog to show up to select permissions, however the toast that says "Permission Denied" shows up immediately with no dialog box

I genuinely have no idea what I am doing wrong. Please help.