.idea folder cannot be removed from git

Hi,

I'm having this website project where the directory has to be clean to run the deployment script. Apparently, I cannot remove this damn folder for git no matter what I try: I have tried using git rm --cached .idea -r and it's variants, adding this folder to .gitignore and adding it to "ignored files" in project settings. I have googled this for several hours now and none of the solutions I have found work, the thing still shows up every time I do cmd+K. What do you want from me, PhpStorm!?! This frustrates me so much that I'm actually writing a forum post about it, which I have never done before.