Is Search Console verification just playing hide-and-seek?

After finally getting my Laravel dynamic sitemap to behave, it seems Google Search Console is now playing hard to get with site verification.

I've tried both the HTML file upload and the meta tag methods, but it just keeps telling me "Verification failed." It's like it's looking right at it but refusing to acknowledge it exists.

Here's the kind of cryptic message I'm seeing:

Google Search Console Output:
Verification method: HTML file
Status: Verification failed. We couldn't find the verification file at the specified location.

Any secret handshake required for Search Console verification that I'm missing?