.phtml Changes Not Showing On Frontend

Question

I am having an issue in my Magento installation where changes to .phtml files are not reflected on the frontend. I've verified that I am editing the right .phtml file by enabling the debug options for template hints. I've also cleared all Magento and Browser cache. Is there anything else I can do in addition to this to get frontend changes to show up?

Edit: The location of the file is

app/design/frontend/hewa/newdesign/template/catalog/category/sidebar/navigation.phtml

The line from the XML that defines this template is

<block type="hwcatalog/category_sidebar_navigation" name="catalog.sidebar.nav" after="currency" template="catalog/category/sidebar/navigation.phtml"/>

The layout xml file is located at

app/design/frontend/hewa/newdesign/layout/hwcatalog.xml

Here is the relevant section of the XML.

<catalog_category_layered>
    <remove name="category.products"/>
    <remove name="catalog.leftnav"/>

    <reference name="root">
        <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-left.phtml</template></action>
    </reference>
    <reference name="left">
        <block type="hwcatalog/category_sidebar_navigation" name="catalog.sidebar.nav" after="currency" template="catalog/category/sidebar/navigation.phtml"/>
    </reference>
    <reference name="content">
        <block type="catalog/category_view" name="category.product.list" template="catalog/category/view.phtml">
            <block type="core/template" name="restricted" template="catalog/restricted.phtml" />
            <block type="hwcatalog/product_list_category" name="product_list">
            </block>
        </block>
    </reference>
</catalog_category_layered>

Here is the setting from the module's config.xml that points to the layout xml

<frontend>
    <layout>
        <updates>
            <hwcatalog>
                <file>hwcatalog.xml</file>
            </hwcatalog>
        </updates>
    </layout>
    <routers>
        <catalog>
            <args>
                <modules>
                    <Hwareh_Catalog before="Mage_Catalog">Hwareh_Catalog</Hwareh_Catalog>
                </modules>
            </args>
        </catalog>
    </routers>
    <events>
        <controller_action_layout_load_before>
            <observers>
                <add_additional_handle_on_product_view_page>
                    <class>Hwareh_Catalog_Model_Observer</class>
                    <method>addAdditionalHandleOnProductViewPage</method>
                </add_additional_handle_on_product_view_page>
            </observers>
        </controller_action_layout_load_before>
    </events>
</frontend>

Answer 1

I used to have this issue when I first started as well. For me it had nothing to do with any code, but rather the fact that I had Cloudflare enabled on my site. Simply changing my website's mode to Development mode fixed it and I seen changes immediately, rather than it taking days for things to show. If your new file dates aren't updating in your FTP after uploading, your issue is identical to mine. Purging the cache via Cloudflare works as well.

Of course, if you're not using Cloudflare, ignore this.