You stare at your screen. The error message glares back at you. Target class controller does not exist. Your controller file sits right there in the folder. Everything looks perfect. But Laravel refuses to see it.
Sound familiar? You are not alone. This error hits thousands of developers every day. The worst part? The solution takes 30 seconds once you know what to do.
Here is what happened. Laravel 8 changed how routes work. The old way where you wrote Route::get with just the controller name stopped working. No warning. No migration guide that anyone reads. Just errors.
Your brain screams. The controller exists. The file is there. The namespace looks right. So why does Laravel act like you deleted the file?
Three fixes work. Pick the one you hate least.
First fix. Change your route syntax. Open your routes file. Find lines like Route::get. Add the full namespace at the top using the use keyword. Then write your route as Route::get with square brackets containing YourController::class and the method name.
Example. Replace Route::get with use App\Http\Controllers\YourController at the top. Then write Route::get.
Second fix. Edit RouteServiceProvider. Open app/Providers/RouteServiceProvider.php. Find the protected namespace line. If it says null or is missing, change it to protected $namespace equals App\Http\Controllers. Add semicolon. Then update the boot method to include namespace calls on your route groups.
Third fix. Run composer dump autoload. Open terminal. Type composer dump autoload. Hit enter. Wait ten seconds. Try again.
The third fix works when Laravel lost track of your files. The autoloader maps class names to file locations. When you add new controllers, Laravel sometimes misses them. Running dump autoload rebuilds that map.
Which fix should you use? The first one. Using the full class name makes your code clearer. Your IDE can jump to the controller when you click it. Refactoring tools work better. You see exactly which controller handles each route.
The second fix works if you have hundreds of routes and refuse to update them. But you are delaying the inevitable. Laravel moved away from string based routes for good reasons.
The third fix solves autoloading problems. But if you still get errors after running it, the problem is not autoloading. Go back to fixes one or two.
One more thing. Check your namespace. Open your controller file. The namespace line at the top must match your folder structure. If your controller lives in App\Http\Controllers\Admin, the namespace must say namespace App\Http\Controllers\Admin.
Typos kill you here. One wrong letter breaks everything. Copy the namespace from another working controller if you need to.
This error frustrates you because the solution feels invisible. Your code looks right. The file exists. Everything seems fine until you understand Laravel 8 changed the rules.
Now you know. Update your routes. Check your namespace. Run dump autoload if needed. Your error disappears.
Three minutes of fixes saves three hours of frustration. Your controller works. Your routes load. You move on to the next problem.
