diff --git a/src/sync_template.sh b/src/sync_template.sh
index c7b1faae..1b6280e4 100755
--- a/src/sync_template.sh
+++ b/src/sync_template.sh
@@ -377,7 +377,7 @@ function handle_templatesyncignore() {
   # -s is true if the file contains whitespaces
   if [ -s "${template_sync_ignore_file_path}" ]; then
     debug "unstage files from template sync ignore ${template_sync_ignore_file_path}"
-    < "${template_sync_ignore_file_path}" awk NF | xargs -r git reset --
+    sed '/^[[:blank:]]*#/d;s/#.*//' "${template_sync_ignore_file_path}" | awk NF | xargs -r git reset --
 
     debug "clean untracked files"
     git clean -df