diff --git a/pihole b/pihole
index eb825965..1047d152 100755
--- a/pihole
+++ b/pihole
@@ -104,6 +104,9 @@ restartDNS() {
   local svcOption svc str output status pid icon FTL_PID_FILE
   svcOption="${1:-restart}"
 
+  # get the current path to the pihole-FTL.pid
+  FTL_PID_FILE="$(getFTLPIDFile)"
+
   # Determine if we should reload or restart
   if [[ "${svcOption}" =~ "reload-lists" ]]; then
     # Reloading of the lists has been requested
@@ -111,9 +114,6 @@ restartDNS() {
     # Note 2: We cannot use killall here as it does
     #         not know about real-time signals
 
-    # get the current path to the pihole-FTL.pid
-    FTL_PID_FILE="$(getFTLPIDFile)"
-
     pid="$(getFTLPID ${FTL_PID_FILE})"
     if [[ "$pid" -eq "-1" ]]; then
       svc="true"