Why is git ignoring my changed file?

Question

I make an arbitrary change to a file within my git working directory.

git status does not recognized that the file has changed.

git add /path

Answer 1

Also make sure that you have not manually updated the index to assume that the changed file(s) are unchanged like so:

git update-index --assume-unchanged path/to/file

As dumb as it sounds I did that, then a few days later made changes to the file and could not figure out why git was not tracking it. I tried all of the above suggestions, and kept pulling my hair out b/c the changed file was not listed in any .gitignore or exclude files.

If you've told git to assume the file is unchanged, you will have to:

git update-index --no-assume-unchanged path/to/file

or just re-clone the repo like I ended up doing before I remembered what I had done...