No submodule mapping found in .gitmodules for path and missing .gitmodules file

Question

When I run git submodule init, I get the following error:

No submodule mapping found in .gitmodules for path \'xxx\'

I

Answer 1

In addition to the above I also had to remove .gitmodules.

Answer 2

just got over the same issue yesterday, after having deleted by hand the entry in .gitmodules (e.g. nano .gitmodules), I had to go with

git rm --cached <pathtomodule> 

which returned a message

rm '<pathtomodule>'

then I needed a

git commit -m "delete cached modules"

and validated the submodule deletion.

Answer 3

Adding to the answer by @kirelagin :

Not always you need to do git rm. Sometimes, it's merely a typo in your .gitmodules. Here I made a few snapshots and commentaries on how SourceTree Git might lose track of submodules.

Answer 4

1. Make sure that there are no submodule sections in .git/config. If there are, remove them.
2. Do git rm --cached <path_to_submodule>.