diff --git a/BUILD.md b/BUILD.md
index ae32c0a9107e7a..5e11d2c83808ee 100644
--- a/BUILD.md
+++ b/BUILD.md
@@ -102,6 +102,11 @@ list some basic and more used commands as example.
     Cleaning the build is very often not necessary and discouraged. We do
     incremental builds reducing the build time by orders of magnitude.
 
+    If submodules are failing to be synchronized, `submodulesync` may be used
+    to resync the submodules. This is usually necessary when shifting development
+    between stable releases or a stable release and the master branch.
+
+    In some some cases `submodule_force_clean` may be necessary. This removes all submodules and then performs a `submodulesync`. (Note whitelisted modules like esp_idf is not removed.)
 
 * **Upload or install**
 
diff --git a/Tools/completion/bash/_waf b/Tools/completion/bash/_waf
index 5eb71bd2e76cdd..a62a4a12510c61 100755
--- a/Tools/completion/bash/_waf
+++ b/Tools/completion/bash/_waf
@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@ _waf()
     opts+=" configure"
     opts+=" clean"
     opts+=" distclean"
+    opts+=" submodule_force_clean"
+    opts+=" submodulesync"
 
     # Prevent word reuse TODO: add -vvv case
     lim=$((COMP_CWORD - 1))
diff --git a/Tools/completion/zsh/_waf b/Tools/completion/zsh/_waf
index e2d0ce6d632cb0..4b70537d005ba5 100644
--- a/Tools/completion/zsh/_waf
+++ b/Tools/completion/zsh/_waf
@@ -89,7 +89,9 @@ _waf_cmds() {
     'build:executes the build' \
     'configure:configures the project' \
     'clean:cleans the project' \
-    'distclean:removes build folders and data'
+    'distclean:removes build folders and data' \
+    'submodule_force_clean:removes all submodules, then checkouts all current submodules and synchronizes them' \
+    'submodulesync:checkouts all current submodules and synchronizes them'
   )
   _describe -t commands 'command' commands "$@" && ret=0
 }
diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index 8d2c2a68b2b299..c21a031e52f920 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -86,6 +86,29 @@ def _set_build_context_variant(board):
             continue
         c.variant = board
 
+# Remove all submodules and then sync
+@conf
+def submodule_force_clean(ctx):
+    whitelist = {
+                            'COLCON_IGNORE',
+                            'esp_idf',
+                          }
+
+    # Get all items in the modules folder
+    module_list = os.scandir('modules')
+
+    # Delete all directories except those in the whitelist
+    for module in module_list:
+        if (module.is_dir()) and (module.name not in whitelist):
+            shutil.rmtree(module)
+
+    submodulesync(ctx)
+
+# run Tools/gittools/submodule-sync.sh to sync submodules
+@conf
+def submodulesync(ctx):
+    subprocess.call(['Tools/gittools/submodule-sync.sh'])
+
 def init(ctx):
     # Generate Task List, so that VS Code extension can keep track
     # of changes to possible build targets