Jekyll + Contentful on Netlify: Webhook rebuilds ignore fresh Contentful data, uses stale _data instead

Question

Problem
When Contentful content updates, Netlify rebuilds via webhook but uses outdated _data files instead of fresh Contentful data. The deployed site remains stale.

Current Setup

• Jekyll site hosted on Netlify, Contentful as headless CMS
• Netlify build command:

  jekyll contentful && jekyll build
  

Contentful webhook triggers Netlify builds (verified in logs)

✅ Local workflow works:

jekyll contentful → updates _data → push to GitHub → Netlify rebuilds with new content (correct).

❌ Contentful-triggered workflow fails:

Contentful update → Netlify webhook → rebuild runs, but _data stays outdated → deployed site uses old content.

Expected Behavior

Netlify should fetch fresh Contentful data during build (ignoring Git-tracked _data) and deploy with the latest content.

Relevant Configs _config.yml:

contentful:
 spaces:
 - MySpace:
 space: SPACE_TOKEN
 access_token: ACCESS_TOKEN

How can I configure Netlify to always fetch live Contentful data during builds, bypassing the Git-tracked _data folder?

• mb21: Perhaps try clicking the "Clear cache and deploy site" function in the "Deployment" section?
• psych0groov3: I've tried that. It didn't work. The publish directory for jekyll is _site the data lives in _data. Netlify seems to only be looking at the _data contents in the github repository. It seems like the build command jekyll contentful isn't having an effect. In fact, I checked the Netlify build log files and jekyll contentful is almost instantaneous.
• mb21: I don't know contentful that well. but perhaps you should not commit _data to the github repo then?
• Alex Susanu: if you do a jekyll contentful --verbose any error message that stands out?