Keep ignored files out of git status

I've had this issue come up as well, it's probably because you added your ignored directory/files to .gitignore after they were marked as "to be tracked" by GIT in an initial commit flow.

So you need to clear the git tracking cache like so:

git rm --cached -r [folder/file name]

A more detailed explanation can be read here: http://www.frontendjunkie.com/2014/12/stop-git-from-tracking-changes-to.html

The above command also removed the remnants of the folder/files from your remote GIT origin. So your GIT repos become clean.

As I found in this post, .gitignore only works for untracked files. If you added files to repository, you can:

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

or remove them from repository by

git rm --cached <file>

Edit

This article explains that too