I am working on an Xcode project in macOS. The project is also under git version control. I have a branch in git that I created off of my local master branch. I have done some substantial work in it and have committed the changes. Issuing a `git status` command reports:

```
nothing to commit, working tree clean

```

I want to switch to the master branch and merge the changes from this branch into it. When I go to switch to the master branch I get a response like the following:

```
error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout:
    <List of files>
Please commit your changes or stash them before you switch branches.
Aborting

```

I am puzzled about why it says the files have changed. If I try to do a diff on one of the files, nothing happens; no output Is generated. In a certain sense, git seems to be treating at least some of these files as if they were new files even though they are not. I’ve tried adding the supposedly changed files to a git commit and git status still says

```
working tree clean

```

If I try to commit, git says

```
nothing to commit, working tree clean

```

If I try to do a git stash, it says

```
No local changes to save

```

What can be be done to fix this problem and allow me to merge the changes from this branch into the master branch?