Nginx try_files prompt for download PHP - php

Question

I'm setting up an Nginx + PHP web server on AWS Linux 2. It is a fresh install with nginx and PHP7.4 installed. Below is the virtual host config file in nginx.
I need to redirect all the traffic to index.php because it is a Single Page App.
When I go to www.xxx.com/index.php, the PHP page renders fine (so PHP is definitely running).
When I go to www.xxx.com/login/, the browser prompts for download of the index.php file instead of executing it.
Can anyone please help? (I've tried to clear my browser cache).
/etc/nginx/conf.d/myapp.conf
server {
listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server;
root /var/www/vhosts/app.userback.io/frontend/;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
server_name www.myapp.com;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php =404;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
try_files $uri =404;
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.(?:php|phar))(/.*)$;
fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
fastcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_pass php-fpm;
}
}

Answer 1

Can you try:
location ~ \.php$ {
try_files $uri /404.html;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;// change it if not valid
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include fastcgi_params;
}

Answer 2

I've found the answer here: NGINX try_files does not pass to PHP.
It turns out it is the order of the location plus removing the 404 to make the redirect internal.