🧹 How to Remove Tracked Files That Should Be Ignored in Git

When working on a project, it’s common to add files or directories to your .gitignore file to prevent Git from tracking them. But what if some of those files were already committed and pushed to the repository?

This short guide shows you how to stop Git from tracking files that should now be ignored, without deleting them locally.

🛠️ Step-by-Step Procedure

1. Add the unwanted files to .gitignore

Make sure the files or folders you want to ignore are listed in your .gitignore file.

For example, to ignore IntelliJ IDEA’s misc.xml file:

echo ".idea/misc.xml" >> .gitignore

Or to ignore the entire .idea directory:

echo ".idea/" >> .gitignore

2. Remove the files from Git’s index

Even if a file is now in .gitignore, Git will continue tracking it unless you explicitly remove it from the index.

To do that, run:

git rm --cached path/to/file

Example:

git rm --cached .idea/misc.xml

Use --cached to remove the file from Git tracking only, without deleting it from your local machine.

3. Commit the changes

Now commit the change to let Git know you no longer want to track that file:

git commit -m "Remove misc.xml from version control"

4. Push to the remote repository

git push

That’s it — the file will now be ignored locally and no longer exist in the remote repository.

🧼 Optional: Full Cleanup

If you want to apply the .gitignore file across the entire project and remove all previously tracked files that should now be ignored, use this:

git rm -r --cached .
git add .
git commit -m "Clean up ignored files"
git push

⚠️ This will remove all currently tracked files from Git, and re-add only those not ignored. Be sure to commit or stash any important changes first!

✅ Summary

Ignoring files in .gitignore is not enough — if they’ve already been committed, you have to manually remove them from Git’s index using git rm --cached.

By following the steps above, your repository will be cleaner, and you’ll avoid unnecessary conflicts, especially in team projects.

This article was written with the help of AI assistance to ensure clarity and precision in the steps. 🤖✨