Link to custom archive page links to page-template instead

On my page-projects.php template page I am outputting image posts from my CPT 'projects'.
I want to add a 'see all' link to my 'archive-projects.php (using: echo get_post_type_archive_link('/projects');), but it's linking to the same page-projects.php that I am on...

created template page in root called page-projects.php
in dashboard the page is 'photography' with slug of 'projects' and is assigned project template(page-projects.php) from 'page attributes' meta-box
CPT is 'projects', and each project is assigned project template(page-projects.php) from 'page attributes' meta-box
created archive-projects.php in root and in CPT code I have added for archive 'has_archive' => true

Why is it linking to my custom post type page that I am already on and not my custom post type archive page?

Solution

If your page who list projects slug is projects AND your archive slug is also projects WordPress will always display your page.

The archive page need to have a different slug.