git add . -> still "nothing to commit" with new files

I am struggling with Git, I can't seem to add my files. I ran ls to show that the files are in the current directory, then ran git add . then git status which showed "nothing to commit".

JJ-Computer:first_app JJ$ git init

Reinitialized existing Git repository in /Users/JJ/rails_projects/first_app/.git/

JJ-Computer:first_app JJ$ ls

Diary.txt README.rdoc config.ru log   tmp
Gemfile   Rakefile  db    public    vendor
Gemfile.lock  app   doc   script
README    config    lib   test

JJ-Computer:first_app JJ$ git add .

JJ-Computer:first_app Jenn$ git status

# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)

JJ-Computer:first_app JJ$ 

Your commands look correct (I've done them many times that way).

First try

git add --all

and then try git status. I don't think that will solve it, but worth trying next.

Next try looking at your .gitignore file, if you have one (in the top level where you did git init).

cat .gitignore

Remove any listings there that are causing your files to be ignored. For example is there an entry with just *?

Next try:

git add --force

and then try git status.

If none of those work, I notice that your output from git init says "reinitialized" rather than "initialized", so something may have gotten messed up. If you've just initialized it and don't mind losing history, start over by removing the .git dir:

rm -rf .git

And then reexecute your same commands above. If that doesn't work, some more information about your setup will be required. For example, you might have a global .gitignore file: ~/.gitignore_global that needs to edited (or removed if you don't want it).

Since I've experienced a similar issue multiple times I would just like to add that you should double check that you're trying to add from and are currently in the root folder of your project.