Expo AV - Unable to play sound from local file on disk

Question

Using Expo AV's Audio, I can play a sound from a remote server just fine. However, when I download the same file on the Simulator's local storage, I'm unable to play the sound anymore.

Here's the part of the code where I load the sound:

const path = `${RNFS.DocumentDirectoryPath}/AudioDownload/${programmeID}/${cdNumber}/${track.filename}`;

// If file exists on FS -> assign its path to uri. Otherwise -> assign the https path instead.
let uri = (await RNFS.exists(path)) ? path : track.url;

// Create sound obj
let sound = new Audio.Sound();
await sound.loadAsync(
    { uri },
    { shouldPlay: true }
);

// Return
return sound;

The error occurs on the loadAsync functionality. It prints the following error message to the terminal:

Possible Unhandled Promise Rejection (id: 0):
Error: Cannot complete operation because sound is not loaded.

I saw someone raised a similar issue here: Expo AV React Native Local Sound File issue, but I it didn't resolve mine.