Azure App Service
Azure App Service is a service used to create and deploy scalable, mission-critical web apps.
Azure App Service - FTP edits not reflected until restart across multiple apps
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EM Montenegro
5
Reputation points
Hello.
I'm currently having issue with FTP edits on my Azure App Services no longer appear on the site until I restart the app. This used to update live without a restart. I see this in 3 different app service.
Below are the details:
Environment
- Azure App Service on Linux
- WordPress, PHP
- Deployment via FTP and Kudu
- No staging slot set
Symptom
- Edit a file via FTP on production
- No change on the frontend
- After an App Service restart, the change appears
Timeline
- Worked before
- Issue started recently
Azure App Service
{count} vote
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Srikanth Reddy Bandi 255 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator2025-08-28T08:00:36.28+00:00 Hello EM Montenegro,
Thank you for submitting your question on Microsoft Q&A.
The main reason your changes don't show up until after a restart is because your PHP web application runs in a Linux container. Unlike older Windows-based App Services, Linux containers use their own file systems, which can cause delays in syncing changes made via FTP with the running web process. The web server (such as Nginx) or PHP-FPM may cache files in memory or a temporary location, so a restart clears those caches and loads the updated files from disk.
Possible causes include:
- Caching: This is the most common issue, including PHP's bytecode cache, opcache, or local App Service cache settings.
- File Locks: Sometimes, a running process locks a file you're updating, which can cause FTP uploads to fail or only partially complete, keeping the old version until a restart.
- Deployment Method: FTP is a basic file transfer method and doesn't trigger deployment hooks or build processes that more advanced methods (like Git or ZIP deployment) do, which can cause issues for PHP applications.
If you need additional information, please refer to the documents below.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/deploy-ftp?tabs=portal
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/devops/azure-web-app-services-related-issues -
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Marco Marchiaro 0 Reputation points2025-08-28T13:26:42.42+00:00 Thanks @Srikanth Reddy Bandi I am experiencing the same problem, but in my case with an App Service PaaS on Linux running .NET, not PHP.
The scenario is very similar:
The application serves static files (images and resources) from wwwroot.
When I update a file via FTP, the new file is visible on the filesystem, but the app continues to serve the old version.
Restarting the App Service does not fix the issue.
- The only way to make the change appear is to run a
touchon the file from Kudu, after which the new version is served immediately (but could not be the correct solution).
Until the beginning of this month, FTP edits worked fine and were reflected right away. Now they no longer work unless I manually intervene via Kudu.
This suggests the problem is not specific to PHP o .NET or other but affects static file serving on Linux App Service in general, and it looks like something has changed recently on the platform.
Could you please clarify whether this behavior is a known issue/regression, or if it is the result of a recent change in how the file system is handled (e.g. mounting or caching)? More importantly, how can we restore the behavior we had earlier this month, where FTP edits were immediately reflected? Is there any configuration option or startup setting (e.g. environment variables in App Service PaaS) that can control this?
Thanks!
- The only way to make the change appear is to run a
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