The problem is I have to run ngbuild each time after uploading image otherwise images can not be seen anymore
I have tried to store images somewhere on server other than /src/assets folder
server\images/image.jpg
Now images are stored but I can not see them in browser
static path
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname,'dist/my-app')));
Since you are using the static path as
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname,'dist/my-app')));
your image needs to be in dist/my-app/images folder instead of src/images to be able to access it without restarting the server.
You might need the logic to store the image in dist/my-app/images folder instead of src/images in production environment.
The reason why it is working after doing ng build is because it build the required file and copies all the images in the dist/my-app folder, so after doing ng build, new image is successfully copied in the dist folder, and thus it is available for your app.