Laravel Sanctum Email Verification Not Updating email_verified_at Field

I’m building an API using Laravel 10 with Sanctum for authentication, and I’m encountering an issue with email verification. After the user clicks the verification link, the email_verified_at field remains null.

This is my register component

import React from "react";
import { useNavigate } from "react-router-dom";

function Register() {
  const [name, setName] = React.useState("");
  const [email, setEmail] = React.useState("");
  const [password, setPassword] = React.useState("");
  const navigate = useNavigate();

  React.useEffect(() => {
    if (localStorage.getItem("token")) {
      navigate("/account");
      window.location.reload();
    }
  }, []);

  async function register() {
    const item = { name, email, password };

    let result = await fetch("http://localhost:8000/api/register", {
      method: "POST",
      headers: {
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
        Accept: "application/json",
      },
      body: JSON.stringify(item),
    });

    const data = await result.json();

    if (result.ok) {
      alert("Please verify your email before logging in.");
      navigate("/login");
    } else {
      alert(data.message || "Error registering.");
    }
  }

  return (
    <div className="py-16">
      <div className="flex items-center flex-col justify-center gap-6">
        <div className="flex items-center justify-center">
          <h1>Register Form</h1>
        </div>

        <div className="flex items-center flex-col gap-5 justify-center">
          <input
            type="text"
            placeholder="Name"
            value={name}
            onChange={(e) => setName(e.target.value)}
          />
          <input
            type="email"
            placeholder="Email"
            value={email}
            onChange={(e) => setEmail(e.target.value)}
          />
          <input
            type="password"
            placeholder="Password"
            value={password}
            onChange={(e) => setPassword(e.target.value)}
          />
        </div>

        <div>
          <button onClick={register} className="border-2 border-black p-2">
            Register
          </button>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

export default Register;

This is my auth controller

<?php

namespace AppHttpControllers;
use IlluminateValidationValidationException; //manually imported
use IlluminateSupportFacadesHash; //manually imported
use IlluminateHttpRequest;
use AppModelsUser; //manualy imported
use IlluminateAuthEventsVerified;
use IlluminateFoundationAuthEmailVerificationRequest;
use CarbonCarbon;
class AuthController extends Controller
{
    //

    public function verifyEmail(Request $request, $id, $hash)
    {
        $user = User::find($id);

        if (!$user) {
            return response()->json(['message' => 'User not found.'], 404);
        }


        if (!hash_equals(sha1($user->getEmailForVerification()), $hash)) {
            return response()->json(['message' => 'Invalid verification link.'], 400);
        }


        if ($user->email_verified_at) {
            return response()->json(['message' => 'Email already verified.']);
        }

        $user->email_verified_at = Carbon::now();
        $user->save();

        return response()->json(['message' => 'Email verified successfully.']);
    }
    public function resendEmailVerification(Request $request)
    {
        if ($request->user()->hasVerifiedEmail()) {
            return response()->json(['message' => 'Email already verified.']);
        }

        $request->user()->sendEmailVerificationNotification();

        return response()->json(['message' => 'Verification email sent.']);
    }

    public function register(Request $request)
    {
        $request->validate([
            'name' => 'required|string|max:255',
            'email' => 'required|string|email|unique:users',
            'password' => 'required|string|min:6'
        ]);

        $user = User::create([
            'name' => $request->name,
            'email' => $request->email,
            'password' => Hash::make($request->password)
        ]);


        $user->sendEmailVerificationNotification();



        $token = $user->createToken('auth_token')->plainTextToken;

        return response()->json(['token' => $token, 'user' => $user], 201);
    }

    public function login(Request $request)
    {
        $request->validate([
            'email' => 'required|email',
            'password' => 'required'
        ]);

        $user = User::where('email', $request->email)->first();

        if (!$user || !Hash::check($request->password, $user->password)) {
            return ["error" => "Invalid credentials"];
        }

        $token = $user->createToken('auth_token')->plainTextToken;

        return response()->json(['token' => $token, 'user' => $user]);
    }

    public function logout(Request $request)
    {
        $request->user()->tokens()->delete();

        return response()->json(['message' => 'Logged out']);
    }

    public function user(Request $request)
    {
        return response()->json($request->user());
    }



}

These are my api routes

<?php

use AppHttpControllersAuthController;
use AppHttpControllersDisplayController;
use AppHttpControllersOrderController;
use AppHttpControllersStripeController;
use IlluminateHttpRequest;
use IlluminateSupportFacadesRoute;

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| API Routes
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Here is where you can register API routes for your application. These
| routes are loaded by the RouteServiceProvider within a group which
| is assigned the "api" middleware group. Enjoy building your API!
|
*/

Route::middleware('auth:sanctum')->get('/user', function (Request $request) {
    return $request->user();
});


Route::post("/login",[AuthController::class,"login"]);
Route::post("/register",[AuthController::class,"register"]);

Route::middleware('auth:sanctum')->post('/addOrder', [OrderController::class, 'addOrder']);

Route::middleware('auth:sanctum')->post('/pay', [StripeController::class, 'pay']);

Route::middleware('auth:sanctum')->get('/displayOrders', [DisplayController::class, 'displayOrders']);



Route::get('/email/verify/{id}/{hash}', [AuthController::class, 'verifyEmail'])
    ->middleware(['signed']) 
    ->name('verification.verify');

And these are my web routes

<?php

use IlluminateSupportFacadesRoute;
use IlluminateFoundationAuthEmailVerificationRequest;
use AppHttpControllersAuthController;

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Web Routes
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Here is where you can register web routes for your application. These
| routes are loaded by the RouteServiceProvider within a group which
| contains the "web" middleware group. Now create something great!
|
*/

Route::get('/', function () {
    return view('welcome');
});


Route::get('/login', function () {
    return redirect('http://localhost:5173/login');
})->name('login');
Route::get('/email/verify/{id}/{hash}', [AuthController::class, 'verifyEmail'])
    ->middleware(['auth:sanctum', 'signed'])
    ->name('verification.verify');

I already made sure that the user model has the email verification thing enabled. Simply , after I receive the confirmation email on mailtrap and click the button I am getting redirected to the login page and then when checking the data base the “email_verified_at” entry is still empty… pls help