How to change storage path in laravel 5.3 to public?

In laravel 5.3, if I upload a file from a form, it will be stored in own storage directory. Then I should create a symlink to that storage path in public path.

I can't use creating symlinks on my system because of the limitation. How can I upload files directly to public/uploads instead of storage/app/uploads?

I tried to set the path in AppServiceProvider.php but it doesn't work.

public function register()
{
    //not working:
    $this->app->useStoragePath( $this->app->basePath() .  "/upload");

    //also not working:
    // $this->app->bind('path.storage', function () {
    // return $this->app->basePath() . '/upload';
    // });

}

by "not working" I mean that it is still uploading into the default storage directory. I cleared also the cache... why is this so ridiculously difficult. :/

here is the upload part (used in a controller):

        $request->image->storeAs("uploads", "uploaded_image.jpg");

thanks for any hints. :)

via Chebli Mohamed