Ideally, yes using sync folders would be the way to go. Unfortunately, the pCloud in question is used by more than just myself (shared pCloud folder) and there is a very large amount of folders and files involved - hence using pCloud.
For the time being I will copy the file to my local PC and then copy it back to pCloud afterwards.
I also have a support request with pCloud who are looking in to the issue as well. As it seems that the issue is caused by pCloud syncing the file when it's open and locked and that is causing a disconnect between the application and file. Other cloud providers I've tried don't have this issue (iceDrive, oneDrive).