Git not removing files when switching branch

Question

Sometimes when switching branches using Git (version 1.7.2.1) it does not seem to remove the files/directories I created specific to the branch I switched away from. Neither

Answer 1

I have seen this too. I usually just do a git reset --hard followed by a git clean -f -d and it usually does the trick.

It seems to definitely happen the most often when my IDE has a lock on one of the files in the branch i'm switching from.

Answer 2

I had the same problem because I did not commited files before switching branch !

More explanations here : Why git keeps showing my changes when I switch branches (modified,added, deleted files) no matter if I run git add or not?

Answer 3

First:

git reset --hard

Reset the repository to the state of the last commit.
Since git normally does not remove files it is not tracking those could still cause issues.

Then:

git clean -d --dry-run

See what files would get deleted. We don't want to loose valuable work. and if that is ok:

git clean -d