diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 4a8064a3..77aab2fe 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -5,9 +5,6 @@
 ## User settings
 xcuserdata/
 
-## Generated Protobufs
-protobufs/
-
 ## compatibility with Xcode 8 and earlier (ignoring not required starting Xcode 9)
 *.xcscmblueprint
 *.xccheckout
diff --git a/protobufs b/protobufs
new file mode 160000
index 00000000..5f28be49
--- /dev/null
+++ b/protobufs
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 5f28be497a5518334c86378335e8ffcd177ed661