Storage bucket.exists() always returns false for firebase emulator

[ChromeQ]

[READ] Step 1: Are you in the right place?

• For issues related to the code in this repository file a Github issue.
• If the issue pertains to Cloud Firestore, read the instructions in the "Firestore issue"
  template.
• For general technical questions, post a question on StackOverflow
  with the firebase tag.
• For general Firebase discussion, use the firebase-talk
  google group.
• For help troubleshooting your application that does not fall under one
  of the above categories, reach out to the personalized
  Firebase support channel.

[REQUIRED] Step 2: Describe your environment

• Operating System version: Ubuntu
• Firebase SDK version: [email protected] [email protected]
• Firebase Product: storage
• Node.js version: 18.16.1
• NPM version: 9.5.1

[REQUIRED] Step 3: Describe the problem

Steps to reproduce:

Create basic project with storage and functions setup for emulation: (functions only used to call storage bucket methods)

// firebase.json
"emulators": {
    "functions": {
      "port": 5001
    },
    "storage": {
      "port": 9199
    },
    // ...rest of config

Run emulator with firebase emulators:start --only storage,functions
Verify storage bucket exists in emulator and the name is matched in firebase config showing storage_bucket as the default
Hit the firebase function to run the storage bucket code
Calling bucket.exists() from firebase function always returns false.

Expected outcome:
Calling bucket.exists() from firebase function return true when accessing the default bucket.

Relevant Code:

import { onRequest } from 'firebase-functions/v2/https';
import { getStorage } from 'firebase-admin/storage';

export const foo = onRequest(async (req, res) => {
  const storage = getStorage();
  console.log('APP STORAGE BUCKET:', storage.app.options.storageBucket);

  const bucket = storage.bucket();
  console.log('DEFAULT STORAGE BUCKET:', `name=${bucket.name}`, `id=${bucket.id}`);

  const exists = await bucket.exists();
  console.log('BUCKET EXISTS?:', exists);

  res.send(`BUCKET EXISTS?: ${exists}`);
});

Images

Console output:

Emulator Storage: (name of bucket matches id in code)