Replace uploaded files with a new file version and have the path and filename remain the same

Issue

Deleting a file and replacing it with a new version while retaining the same filename does not work, as the new version would automatically get a prefix (_0) attached to it each time a new version is uploaded (for example: filename_0.pdf; filename_1.pdf, etc.).

Resolution

Use the Media Entity Download module. It allows to link content to media/{media_id}/download no matter the filename.

Caveats:

• Depending upon your site architecture and number of files using this strategy, there might be a performance impact since Drupal will be bootstraped to fetch and return the unique route
• There is currently no integration with Pathauto

Cause

Drupal core doesn't currently support replacing uploaded files with the same filename.