Git error on git pull unable to update local ref

Question

I only have branch master and im getting this error every time i try to  git pull    error  Couldn t set refs remotes origin master From  var lib git xxx project    a0f80ea  49177a3  master     - gt  origin master   unable to update local ref    and when i do  git pull origin master  i get   error  Couldn t set ORIG HEAD fatal  Cannot update the ref  ORIG HEAD     i have been searching but cant find why

User · Answer

I solved as below   git remote prune origin

User · Answer

Speaking from a PC user - Reboot    Honestly  it worked for me  I ve solved two strange git issues I thought were corruptions this way

User · Answer

I had the same error  I was updating from within Eclipse and I got many errors  So I tried updating from a DOS command window  and got the same issue   Then I tried the solution   git gc --prune now   This gave messages that the files were locked in the refs directory   Eclipse must have had a locked on something in the  refs  directory  The solution I found was to simply close Eclipse  Then I updated the repository from DOS with a   git PULL   command  and everything worked fine

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I fixed this by deleting the locked branch file  It may seem crude  and I have no idea why it worked  but it fixed my issue  i e  the same error you are getting  Deleted   git refs remotes origin  locked branch name  Then I simply ran git fetch  and the git file restored itself  fully repaired

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What worked for me was  git config --global fetch prune true  Now it keeps on running prune automatically

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I discoverd the same Error message trying to pull from a Bitbuck Repo into my lokal copy  There is also only one Branche Master and the command git pull origin master lead to this Error Message   From https   bitbucket org xxx    branch            master     - gt  FETCH HEAD error  Couldn t set ORIG HEAD fatal  Cannot update the ref  ORIG HEAD     Solution as follows   git reflog find the number of the last commit git reset --hard  lt numnber gt  reset to the last commit  git pull origin master pull again without error

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This error with  unable to update local ref  can also happen if you have changed passwords recently and there s some fancy stuff integrating your Windows and Linux logins

User · Answer

Ensure the user that is executing the git pull is the same user that created the repository  The file permissions are incorrect

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rm  git refs remotes origin master  It works to me

User · Answer

Try to use this command in your git repository root folder   rm  git logs refs remotes origin master

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with gitbach line commande  use git update-ref to update reference of your local branch     git update-ref -d refs remotes origin  locked branch name    then pull using   git pull   locked branch name  is the name of the branch that the error is happening because of mismatch of commit Ids

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I had the same issue on my debian server as the disk is full  No temp file could be created as no space left on device  After cleaning some files  it worked out fine

User · Answer

This work for me  rm  git logs refs remotes origin master

User · Answer

Remove file  git logs refs remotes origin  Locked Branch Name

User · Answer

My team and I ran into this error  unable to update local ref  when doing a pull in SourceTree   Update 2020  Per  Edward Yang s answer below   bryan s comment on this answer  and this question answer you may need to run both git gc --prune now and git remote prune origin  Running only the former has always worked for me but based on ppl s responses I think both are necessary to address different causes of the error   We used  git gc --prune now  This removes any duplicate reference objects which should fix the issue  Here are a few links where you can learn more about git references and pruning   git tip of the week git-prune documentation git references

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This is probably a very niche situation  but  I run Windows in a Parallels VM on my MacBook Pro  with my local repos stored on the VM s disk  which is shared with macOS   If I have a file open in a Mac app from a repo that s located on the Windows VM  I sometimes get the  unable to update local ref  error  The solution when this happens is to simply close the file or quit the Mac app

User · Answer

What happened over here  The local references to your remote branches were changed and hence when you run git pull  git doesn t find any corresponding remote branches and hence it fails  git remote prune origin  actually cleans this local references and then run git pull again  Suggestion - Please run with --dry-run option for safety

User · Answer

Clone the repository again  and copy the  git folder in your broken project

User · Answer

This happened to me on OSX where I use a case insensitive file system  Somehow another developer pushed a branch with the same name but different case  My-Branch vs my-branch   I already had My-Branch checked out and got the error  unable to update local ref  when I did a pull probably because the file system thinks My-Branch    my-branch   Since we use Github I could solve the problem by deleting one of the branches via Github s GUI

[git] Git error on git pull (unable to update local ref)

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