I'm using ST's IDE for STM32 microcontrollers, STM32Cube. It is based on eclipse, just with extra additions for working with microcontrollers. I have made the apparently fatal error of not adding the .metadata folder to the gitignore immediately upon creating the repository. This worked fine until I tried to revert to a previous commit, upon which I got a myriad of random merge conflicts on both text and binary files, mostly in the .metadata folder. I have tried to remove the .metadata folder from the repository, but git stubbornly refuses to ignore it despite using the methods describe in these answers:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/4308645/6181778
https://stackoverflow.com/a/30360954/6181778
https://stackoverflow.com/a/2163926/6181778 (for solving the alleged merge conflicts)
As far as the merge conflicts are concerned, they don't make any sense since I am the only contributor to the repository, so it is impossible for two different versions of a file to be committed. Git has now inserted a bunch of merge conflict stuff (most of which doesn't even have two sections, just a head and tail with no divider) into all my files, and STCube refuses to launch because of it. Is there any way to recover from this, or do I just need to try and salvage my code and start a new repository?