diff --git a/pkg/gui/file_watching.go b/pkg/gui/file_watching.go
index 90fb32639..9ad7f68c4 100644
--- a/pkg/gui/file_watching.go
+++ b/pkg/gui/file_watching.go
@@ -4,24 +4,103 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 
+	"github.com/davecgh/go-spew/spew"
 	"github.com/fsnotify/fsnotify"
 	"github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/commands"
+	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 )
 
+// macs for some bizarre reason cap the number of watchable files to 256.
+// there's no obvious platform agonstic way to check the situation of the user's
+// computer so we're just arbitrarily capping at 200. This isn't so bad because
+// file watching is only really an added bonus for faster refreshing.
+const MAX_WATCHED_FILES = 200
+
+type fileWatcher struct {
+	Watcher          *fsnotify.Watcher
+	WatchedFilenames []string
+	Log              *logrus.Entry
+}
+
+func NewFileWatcher(log *logrus.Entry) *fileWatcher {
+	watcher, err := fsnotify.NewWatcher()
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Error(err)
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	return &fileWatcher{
+		Watcher:          watcher,
+		Log:              log,
+		WatchedFilenames: make([]string, 0, MAX_WATCHED_FILES),
+	}
+}
+
+func (w *fileWatcher) watchingFilename(filename string) bool {
+	for _, watchedFilename := range w.WatchedFilenames {
+		if watchedFilename == filename {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
+
+func (w *fileWatcher) popOldestFilename() {
+	// shift the last off the array to make way for this one
+	oldestFilename := w.WatchedFilenames[0]
+	w.WatchedFilenames = w.WatchedFilenames[1:]
+	if err := w.Watcher.Remove(oldestFilename); err != nil {
+		// swallowing errors here because it doesn't really matter if we can't unwatch a file
+		w.Log.Warn(err)
+	}
+}
+
+func (w *fileWatcher) watchFilename(filename string) {
+	w.Log.Warn(filename)
+	if err := w.Watcher.Add(filename); err != nil {
+		// swallowing errors here because it doesn't really matter if we can't watch a file
+		w.Log.Warn(err)
+	}
+
+	// assume we're watching it now to be safe
+	w.WatchedFilenames = append(w.WatchedFilenames, filename)
+}
+
+func (w *fileWatcher) addFilesToFileWatcher(files []*commands.File) error {
+	// watch the files for changes
+	dirName, err := os.Getwd()
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	for _, file := range files {
+		filename := filepath.Join(dirName, file.Name)
+		if w.watchingFilename(filename) {
+			continue
+		}
+		if len(w.WatchedFilenames) > MAX_WATCHED_FILES {
+			w.popOldestFilename()
+		}
+
+		w.watchFilename(filename)
+		w.Log.Warn(spew.Sdump(w.WatchedFilenames))
+	}
+
+	return nil
+}
+
 // NOTE: given that we often edit files ourselves, this may make us end up refreshing files too often
 // TODO: consider watching the whole directory recursively (could be more expensive)
 func (gui *Gui) watchFilesForChanges() {
-	var err error
-	gui.fileWatcher, err = fsnotify.NewWatcher()
-	if err != nil {
-		gui.Log.Error(err)
+	gui.fileWatcher = NewFileWatcher(gui.Log)
+	if gui.fileWatcher == nil {
 		return
 	}
 	go func() {
 		for {
 			select {
 			// watch for events
-			case event := <-gui.fileWatcher.Events:
+			case event := <-gui.fileWatcher.Watcher.Events:
 				if event.Op == fsnotify.Chmod {
 					// for some reason we pick up chmod events when they don't actually happen
 					continue
@@ -37,7 +116,7 @@ func (gui *Gui) watchFilesForChanges() {
 				}
 
 			// watch for errors
-			case err := <-gui.fileWatcher.Errors:
+			case err := <-gui.fileWatcher.Watcher.Errors:
 				if err != nil {
 					gui.Log.Warn(err)
 				}
@@ -45,20 +124,3 @@ func (gui *Gui) watchFilesForChanges() {
 		}
 	}()
 }
-
-func (gui *Gui) addFilesToFileWatcher(files []*commands.File) error {
-	// watch the files for changes
-	dirName, err := os.Getwd()
-	if err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-
-	for _, file := range files {
-		if err := gui.fileWatcher.Add(filepath.Join(dirName, file.Name)); err != nil {
-			// swallowing errors here because it doesn't really matter if we can't watch a file
-			gui.Log.Warn(err)
-		}
-	}
-
-	return nil
-}
diff --git a/pkg/gui/files_panel.go b/pkg/gui/files_panel.go
index aa2e8592e..82a81654c 100644
--- a/pkg/gui/files_panel.go
+++ b/pkg/gui/files_panel.go
@@ -356,7 +356,7 @@ func (gui *Gui) refreshStateFiles() error {
 	files := gui.GitCommand.GetStatusFiles()
 	gui.State.Files = gui.GitCommand.MergeStatusFiles(gui.State.Files, files)
 
-	if err := gui.addFilesToFileWatcher(files); err != nil {
+	if err := gui.fileWatcher.addFilesToFileWatcher(files); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/gui/gui.go b/pkg/gui/gui.go
index fc24bbd6b..530c00383 100644
--- a/pkg/gui/gui.go
+++ b/pkg/gui/gui.go
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
-	"github.com/fsnotify/fsnotify"
 	"github.com/go-errors/errors"
 
 	// "strings"
@@ -82,7 +81,7 @@ type Gui struct {
 	statusManager *statusManager
 	credentials   credentials
 	waitForIntro  sync.WaitGroup
-	fileWatcher   *fsnotify.Watcher
+	fileWatcher   *fileWatcher
 }
 
 // for now the staging panel state, unlike the other panel states, is going to be
@@ -840,7 +839,7 @@ func (gui *Gui) RunWithSubprocesses() error {
 					}
 				}
 
-				gui.fileWatcher.Close()
+				gui.fileWatcher.Watcher.Close()
 
 				break
 			} else if err == gui.Errors.ErrSwitchRepo {