Remove a folder from git tracking

Question

I need to exclude a folder (name uploads) from tracking. I tried to run

git rm -r --cached wordpress/wp-content/uploads

and after that I added the path to .gitignore

/wordpress/wp-content/uploads

but when I ran git status they show up as deleted. If I try to commit the changes, the files will be deleted, not only removed from tracking.

What am I doing wrong?

I have also tried

git update-index --assume-unchanged <file>

but this seems to untrack only files. But I need to remove an entire folder (including subfolders) from tracking.

Answer 1

I came across this question while Googling for "git remove folder from tracking". The OP's question lead me to the answer. I am summarizing it here for future generations.

Question

How do I remove a folder from my git repository without deleting it from my local machine (i.e., development environment)?

Answer

Step 1. Add the folder path to your repo's root .gitignore file.

path_to_your_folder/

Step 2. Remove the folder from your local git tracking, but keep it on your disk.

git rm -r --cached path_to_your_folder/

Step 3. Push your changes to your git repo.

The folder will be considered "deleted" from Git's point of view (i.e. they are in past history, but not in the latest commit, and people pulling from this repo will get the files removed from their trees), but stay on your working directory because you've used --cached.

Answer 2

This works for me:

git rm -r --cached --ignore-unmatch folder_name

--ignore-unmatch is important here, without that option git will exit with error on the first file not in the index.

Answer 3

To forget directory recursively add /*/* to the path:

git update-index --assume-unchanged wordpress/wp-content/uploads/*/*

Using git rm --cached is not good for collaboration. More details here: How to stop tracking and ignore changes to a file in Git?

Answer 4

From the git documentation:

Another useful thing you may want to do is to keep the file in your working tree but remove it from your staging area. In other words, you may want to keep the file on your hard drive but not have Git track it anymore. This is particularly useful if you forgot to add something to your .gitignore file and accidentally staged it, like a large log file or a bunch of .a compiled files. To do this, use the --cached option:

$ git rm --cached readme.txt

So maybe don't include the "-r"?

Answer 5

I know this is an old thread but I just wanted to add a little as the marked solution didn't solve the problem for me (although I tried many times).

The only way I could actually stop git form tracking the folder was to do the following:

1. Make a backup of the local folder and put in a safe place.
2. Delete the folder from your local repo
3. Make sure cache is cleared git rm -r --cached your_folder/
4. Add your_folder/ to .gitignore
5. Commit changes
6. Add the backup back into your repo

You should now see that the folder is no longer tracked.

Don't ask me why just clearing the cache didn't work for me, I am not a Git super wizard but this is how I solved the issue.

Answer 6

Step 2.5: Commit your changes:

>git commit

If you push without doing this first it does nothing!