Permission Issues when trying to play a wave file

Question

I am trying to play an audio file

if (audioFile != null && audioFile.exists()) {
    mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer();
    try {
        Uri audioUri = Uri.fromFile(new File(audioFile.getAbsolutePath()));
        mediaPlayer.setDataSource(getApplicationContext(),audioUri);
        mediaPlayer.prepare();
        mediaPlayer.start();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        Log.e("MediaPlayer Error", "Error while setting data source: " + e.getMessage());
    } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
        Log.e("MediaPlayer Error", "Error while preparing MediaPlayer: " + e.getMessage());
    } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
        Log.e("MediaPlayer Error", "Error while starting MediaPlayer: " + e.getMessage());
    }
} else {
    Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "No audio file to play", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}

Yet I get

E/MediaPlayerNative: Unable to create media player
E/MediaPlayer Error: Error while setting data source: setDataSourceFD failed.: status=0x80000000

I thought about permission errors, so I added <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" /> to the manifest and

if (ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
    ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(this, new String[]{Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE}, 1);
}

to the code of protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) and

@Override
public void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode, @NonNull String[] permissions, @NonNull int[] grantResults) {
    if (requestCode == 1) {
        if (grantResults.length > 0 && grantResults[0] == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
            Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Ja", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        } else {
            Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Nein", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }
    }
    super.onRequestPermissionsResult(requestCode, permissions, grantResults);
}

outside.

I always get Nein and no window is showing up to ask for permissions, it goes straight to Nein.

The solutions here did not work so far.

I am using this in build gradle:

defaultConfig {
    applicationId "com.my.program"
    minSdk 27
    targetSdk 33
    versionCode 1
    versionName "1.0"
}