diff --git a/electron/fileViewer/gitDiffService.ts b/electron/fileViewer/gitDiffService.ts
index 2a7e380..231de94 100644
--- a/electron/fileViewer/gitDiffService.ts
+++ b/electron/fileViewer/gitDiffService.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { execFile } from 'node:child_process'
+import { rm } from 'node:fs/promises'
 import path from 'node:path'
 import { promisify } from 'node:util'
 import type {
@@ -42,6 +43,19 @@ function isNotWorkingTreeError(error: unknown): boolean {
   return `${stderr}\n${message}`.includes('is not a working tree')
 }
 
+function isMissingWorktreeGitFileError(error: unknown): boolean {
+  const candidate = error as { stderr?: unknown; message?: unknown }
+  const stderr = typeof candidate.stderr === 'string' ? candidate.stderr : ''
+  const message = typeof candidate.message === 'string' ? candidate.message : ''
+  const output = `${stderr}\n${message}`
+
+  return (
+    output.includes('validation failed, cannot remove working tree:') &&
+    output.includes('/.git') &&
+    (output.includes('does not exist') || output.includes('is not a file'))
+  )
+}
+
 export class GitDiffService {
   constructor(private readonly fileBufferService: FileBufferService) {}
 
@@ -268,11 +282,18 @@ export class GitDiffService {
     try {
       await execFileAsync('git', args, { cwd })
     } catch (error) {
-      if (!isNotWorkingTreeError(error)) {
-        throw error
+      if (isNotWorkingTreeError(error)) {
+        await execFileAsync('git', ['worktree', 'prune'], { cwd })
+        return
+      }
+
+      if (force && isMissingWorktreeGitFileError(error)) {
+        await rm(worktreePath, { recursive: true, force: true })
+        await execFileAsync('git', ['worktree', 'prune'], { cwd })
+        return
       }
 
-      await execFileAsync('git', ['worktree', 'prune'], { cwd })
+      throw error
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/scripts/git-worktree-status.test.mjs b/scripts/git-worktree-status.test.mjs
index a594bed..2c69f08 100644
--- a/scripts/git-worktree-status.test.mjs
+++ b/scripts/git-worktree-status.test.mjs
@@ -113,6 +113,34 @@ test('pulling a worktree from origin fast-forwards its current branch', async ()
   }
 })
 
+test('force-removing a worktree recovers when its .git file is missing', async () => {
+  const { GitDiffService } = await importBundled('../electron/fileViewer/gitDiffService.ts')
+  const root = await mkdtemp(join(tmpdir(), 'terminay-git-worktree-remove-test-'))
+  const main = join(root, 'project')
+  const broken = join(root, 'project-broken')
+
+  try {
+    await mkdir(main)
+    await git(['init', '-b', 'main'], main)
+    await git(['config', 'user.email', 'test@example.invalid'], main)
+    await git(['config', 'user.name', 'Terminay Test'], main)
+    await writeFile(join(main, 'shared.txt'), 'base\n')
+    await git(['add', 'shared.txt'], main)
+    await git(['commit', '-m', 'initial commit'], main)
+    await git(['worktree', 'add', broken, '-b', 'broken'], main)
+    await writeFile(join(broken, 'untracked.txt'), 'discard me\n')
+    await rm(join(broken, '.git'), { force: true })
+
+    const service = new GitDiffService(fileBufferStub)
+    await service.removeWorktree(main, broken, true)
+
+    assert.equal((await fileBufferStub.getFileInfo(broken)).exists, false)
+    assert.equal((await git(['worktree', 'list', '--porcelain'], main)).includes(broken), false)
+  } finally {
+    await rm(root, { recursive: true, force: true })
+  }
+})
+
 const fileBufferStub = {
   async getFileInfo(rawPath) {
     const normalizedPath = resolve(rawPath)