Git Bug Report - Weird file behavior and unable to change branches with no changes

What did you do before the bug happened? (Steps to reproduce your issue)

I have two component files, Button and Tabs

There was a casing issue (button vs Button) before that I thought I resolved, but it failed when I built in dev

So because git doesn't track casing changes, I did the correct thing and deleted Button, committed my change that I deleted, then added it back, and committed that.

I ran git config core.ignorecase and it said it was true, so I set it to false and then checked and it said it's false.

Now for some reason, it shows that I'm CREATING TABS as a new file in my working changes. AND, when I check the pull request, tabs is there but button is missing

So I clear the git cache with git rm --cached -r . and then run git add . to add every file.

And it shows 3 file changes: 1) deleting Tabs, 2) changing another unrelated file which has no changes shown, 3) Also changing another unrelated file which has no changes shown

So I push it and locally I have tabs and button and in the pull request I have tabs and button locally. So now I have no working changes, everything is good, and I try changing branches from design to dev.

It won't let me because I have changes. I check and it says I have no changes.

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git status On branch design-system Your branch is up to date with 'origin/design-system'.

nothing to commit, working tree clean

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git checkout dev
error: The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten
by checkout:
        src/lib/components/UI/Tabs.svelte
        Please move or remove them before you switch branches.
        Aborting

What did you expect to happen? (Expected behavior)

The file changes to be tracked. No working changes.

What happened instead? (Actual behavior)

What I mentioned above. Random files were changed, no changes shown. At minimum, after status says tree clean, it shouldn't stop me from changing branches because I have working files.

What's different between what you expected and what actually happened?

As I explained above, the entire thing is unintuitive and seems buggy to me. I love (and trust) git, but this definitely seems like a bug. I know that no changes shown can still have line endings and that git doesn't track casing unless you tell it to. Still, all of the other behaviors I experienced seem like bugs. I wish I had repro steps or anything else for you.

Anything else you want to add:

Thank you for working on git!

[System Info] git version: git version 2.36.1.windows.1 cpu: x86_64 built from commit: e2ff68a2d1426758c78d023f863bfa1e03cbc768 sizeof-long: 4 sizeof-size_t: 8 shell-path: /bin/sh feature: fsmonitor--daemon uname: Windows 10.0 19045 compiler info: gnuc: 11.3 libc info: no libc information available $SHELL (typically, interactive shell): <unset>

---

git clean -fdx

This deleted almost every file in node_modules. It's gitignored. Here's the gitignore:

# Mac .DS_Store

# Packages node_modules

# Build /build /.svelte-kit /package /.netlify coverage vite.config.js.timestamp-*.mjs

I know this is because of the -x flag now. But even after that, when I ran git status, it was clean, then git checkout dev failed:

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git status On branch design-system Your branch is up to date with 'origin/design-system'.

nothing to commit, working tree clean

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git branch dev fatal: a branch named 'dev' already exists

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git checkout dev
error: The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten
by checkout:
        src/lib/components/UI/Tabs.svelte
Please move or remove them before you switch branches.
Aborting

---

Currently unable to switch branches:

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git status On branch design-system Your branch is up to date with 'origin/design-system'.

nothing to commit, working tree clean

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git branch dev fatal: a branch named 'dev' already exists

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git checkout dev
error: The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten
by checkout:
        src/lib/components/UI/Tabs.svelte
Please move or remove them before you switch branches.
Aborting

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git checkout -b temp Switched to a new branch 'temp'

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git checkout dev
error: The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten
by checkout:
        src/lib/components/UI/Tabs.svelte
Please move or remove them before you switch branches.
Aborting

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git status On branch temp nothing to commit, working tree clean

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git add .

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git status On branch temp nothing to commit, working tree clean

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git checkout dev
error: The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten
by checkout:
        src/lib/components/UI/Tabs.svelte
Please move or remove them before you switch branches.
Aborting

Also:

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git checkout dev
error: The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten
by checkout:
        src/lib/components/UI/Tabs.svelte
Please move or remove them before you switch branches.
Aborting

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>del .git\index

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git reset --hard HEAD HEAD is now at 98c4b5c4 Fix file casing issue and re add components

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git checkout dev
error: The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten
by checkout:
        src/lib/components/UI/Tabs.svelte
Please move or remove them before you switch branches.
Aborting

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git status On branch temp nothing to commit, working tree clean

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git checkout dev
error: The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten
by checkout:
        src/lib/components/UI/Tabs.svelte
Please move or remove them before you switch branches.
Aborting

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>

---

Fixed by manually deleting the file via windows explorer:

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git status
On branch temp
Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
        deleted:    src/lib/components/ui/Tabs.svelte

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git checkout dev Switched to branch 'dev' Your branch is up to date with 'origin/dev'.

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>git status On branch dev Your branch is up to date with 'origin/dev'.

Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
        src/lib/components/ui/Tabs.svelte

nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)

C:\Users\User\Documents\GitHub\desktopclock>

It showed I deleted the file from temp branch, then when changing to dev that I am adding the file.

Git certainly seems like it's in a broken state and I'm completely unable to fix it.

Thank you in advance!