Why is ALBUM_ART the only field that returns null from MediaStore when others are fine?

I'm having trouble retrieving the album artwork path. My storage permissions can't be the problem since I can fetch all other fields, so I'm wondering what the problem might be. I'll admit I'm a bit new to ContentResolvers and the MediaStore. I just need a path to be used in BitmapFactory.decodeFile(). The code is below, followed by the Log output.

Context (if it helps)

- Method is called from SongRoomDatabase.java (not an activity) which extends RoomDatabase. 
- The context is passed from the MainActivity to the DB through the DB constructor.

Test method for retrieving album data from ALBUM_ID = 209 ("Viva la Gloria!" by Greenday)

public static void getCoverArtTest(){
        Cursor cursor = mContext.getContentResolver().query(
                MediaStore.Audio.Albums.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI,
                new String[] {
                        MediaStore.Audio.Albums._ID,
                        MediaStore.Audio.Albums.ALBUM,
                        MediaStore.Audio.Albums.ALBUM_ART,
                        MediaStore.Audio.Albums.ARTIST
                },
                MediaStore.Audio.Albums._ID+ "=?",
                new String[] {String.valueOf(209)},
                null);

        if (cursor != null && cursor.moveToFirst()) {
            String path = "";
            path += cursor.getString(0) + "/";
            path += cursor.getString(1) + "/";
            path += cursor.getString(2) + "/";
            path += cursor.getString(3) + "/";
            // do whatever you need to do
            Log.d("artworkTag", "Album art path: " + path);
        }
    }

Output

 Album art path: 209/21st Century Breakdown/null/Green Day/

Is it just stored somewhere else? Do I need to retrieve it a specific way since it's not a string like the other fields (if it's returning something other than it's path)?

I noticed recently in my app the album arts started coming up empty where it had previously worked with similar code.

I checked the developer reference and there is new information about ALBUM_ART

> This constant was deprecated in API level 29. Apps may not have
> filesystem permissions to directly access this path. Instead of trying
> to open this path directly, apps should use
> ContentResolver#loadThumbnail to gain access.

So I tried changed the targetSdkVersion version back to 28 but still no good when running on a device with android 10 Q which is api 29.

So unfortunately to support newer androids we need to use something like this instead:

String filePath = null;
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT <= Build.VERSION_CODES.P) {
Cursor albumCursor = context.getContentResolver().query(
MediaStore.Audio.Albums.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI,
new String[]{MediaStore.Audio.Media._ID, MediaStore.Audio.Albums.ALBUM_ART},
MediaStore.Audio.Media._ID + " = " + albumId,
null,
null);
if (albumCursor != null) {
if (albumCursor.moveToFirst()) {
filePath = albumCursor.getString(1);
}
albumCursor.close();
}
} else {
Uri albumArtUri = ContentUris.withAppendedId(MediaStore.Audio.Albums.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI, Long.parseLong(albumId));
try {
Bitmap bitmap = context.getContentResolver().loadThumbnail(albumArtUri, new Size(1024, 1024), null);
File art = new File(context.getCacheDir(), "albumart" + albumId + ".jpg");
art.createNewFile();
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(art);
bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 90, fos);
fos.flush();
fos.close();
filePath = art.getAbsolutePath();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}