I get the reload indicator if ./tempdir/file1 is more recent than ./file1 (and ./file1 is open in Geany).
Isn't that the situation with your reproduce instructions in the OP, `temp/file1` is created after `./file1`? Which is why it worked for me.
No. I didn't think of the time factor before it was mentioned above.
Which means my instructions to reproduce were a bit off. Whenever I had reproduced, it was the open ./file1 that was always more recent because that's the one I was frequently saving while editing.
not sure if it matters now but I'll edit the instructions
How are you telling Geany to open the file? If you want to get on-disk contents just reload.
Doh! was trying with "open"... reload works.