autoExclusive property not working for custom Component

Saviz

Firstly, I'd like to provide information about the project setup and statistics:

Qt version: 6.5 LTS
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
Compiler: MinGW_64_bit-Debug

I am currently working on implementing a sidebar menu that allows me to select a tab button option to navigate to a specific page. I've developed a custom component type called SideBarButton, intended to function as a TabButton within my custom SideBar type. Here is the code for this custom component:

import QtQuick
import QtQuick.Controls.Basic
import QtQuick.Layouts

Item {
    id: root

    property alias text: tabButton.text
    property alias autoExclusive: tabButton.autoExclusive
    property alias checked: tabButton.checked

    signal buttonClicked

    TabButton {
        id: tabButton

        text: qsTr("")
        checkable: true
        autoExclusive: true
        checked: false

        width: root.width
        height: root.height

        contentItem: RowLayout {

            Text {
                Layout.fillHeight: true
                text: tabButton.text
                font: tabButton.font
                horizontalAlignment : Text.AlignLeft
                verticalAlignment: Text.AlignVCenter

                color: {
                    if(tabButton.checked) {
                        "#3c5d84"
                    }

                    else {
                        "#595959"
                    }
                }
            }

            Item {
                id: item_Spacer
                Layout.fillWidth: true
                Layout.fillHeight: true
            }
        }

        background: Rectangle {
            color: {
                if(tabButton.checked) {
                    "#cce2f3"
                }

                else if(tabButton.hovered) {
                    "whitesmoke"
                }

                else {
                    "#e4e4e4"
                }
            }
        }

        onClicked: {
            buttonClicked()
        }
    }
}

Below is my SideBar component, which generates several instances of SideBarButton for illustrative purposes:

import QtQuick
import QtQuick.Controls.Basic
import QtQuick.Layouts

Item {
    id: root

    ButtonGroup {
        exclusive: true
        buttons: columnLayout.children
    }

    Rectangle {
        id: rectangle_Background

        width: root.width
        height: root.height

        color: black

        ColumnLayout {
            id: columnLayout
            anchors.fill: parent
            clip: true
            spacing: 0

            SideBarButton {
                text: "Photo"

                autoExclusive: true
                checked: true

                Layout.fillWidth: true
                Layout.preferredHeight: 40
            }

            SideBarButton {
                text: "Media Player"

                autoExclusive: true

                Layout.fillWidth: true
                Layout.preferredHeight: 40
            }

            SideBarButton {
                text: "Media Recorder"

                autoExclusive: true

                Layout.fillWidth: true
                Layout.preferredHeight: 40
            }

            Item {
                Layout.fillWidth: true
                Layout.fillHeight: true
            }

            SideBarButton {
                text: "Credits"

                autoExclusive: true

                Layout.fillWidth: true
                Layout.preferredHeight: 40
            }
        }
    }
}

I am facing an issue where, despite trying various methods and solutions, the buttons do not function collectively as a group. The desired behavior is that when one button is checked, all others should be unchecked. I attempted to address this by setting the autoExclusive property to true, which according to the documentation will make the buttons with the same parent work as a group. I also attempted to use a button manager like the ButtonGroup type, which again stated by the documentation will attepmt to manage them as a group. However, none of these approaches seem to produce the intended outcome. I am currently unsure about the source of the problem and would greatly appreciate any assistance.