.gitignore will prevent untracked files from being added (without an add -f) to the set of files tracked by Git, however Git will continue to track any files that are already being tracked.
To stop tracking a file you need to remove it from the index. This can be achieved with this command.
git rm –cached
If you want to remove a whole folder, you need to remove all files in it recursively.
git rm -r –cached
The removal of the file from the head revision will happen on the next commit.
WARNING: While this will not remove the physical file from your local, it will remove the files from other developers machines on next git pull.
The series of commands below will remove all of the items from the Git index (not from the working directory or local repository), and then will update the Git index, while respecting Git ignores. PS. Index = Cache
First:
git rm -r –cached .
git add .
Then:
git commit -am “Remove ignored files”
Or as a one-liner:
git rm -r –cached . && git add . && git commit -am “Remove ignored files”