[git] Git undo local branch delete

I just deleted the wrong branch with some experimental changes I need with git branch -D branchName.

How do I recover the branch?

If you know the last SHA1 of the branch, you can try

git branch branchName <SHA1>

You can find the SHA1 using git reflog, described in the solution --defect link--.

Thanks, this worked.

git branch new_branch_name sha1

git checkout new_branch_name

//can see my old checked in files in my old branch

If you just deleted the branch, you will see something like this in your terminal:

Deleted branch branch_name(was e562d13)

• where e562d13 is a unique ID (a.k.a. the "SHA" or "hash"), with this you can restore the deleted branch.

To restore the branch, use:

git checkout -b <branch_name> <sha>

for example:

git checkout -b branch_name e562d13 

First: back up your entire directory, including the .git directory.

Second: You can use git fsck --lost-found to obtain the ID of the lost commits.

Third: rebase or merge onto the lost commit.

Fourth: Always think twice before using -D or --force with git :)

You could also read this good discussion of how to recover from this kind of error.

EDIT: By the way, don't run git gc (or allow it to run by itself - i.e. don't run git fetch or anything similar) or you may lose your commits for ever.

If you haven't push the deletion yet, you can simply do :

$ git checkout deletedBranchName

This worked for me:

git fsck --full --no-reflogs --unreachable --lost-found
git show d6e883ff45be514397dcb641c5a914f40b938c86
git branch helpme 15e521b0f716269718bb4e4edc81442a6c11c139

If you deleted a branch via Source Tree, you could easily find the SHA1 of the deleted branch by going to View -> Show Command History.

It should have the next format:

Deleting branch ...
...
Deleted branch %NAME% (was %SHA1%)
...

Then just follow the original answer.

git branch branchName <sha1>

Follow these Steps:

1: Enter:

git reflog show 

This will display all the Commit history, you need to select the sha-1 that has the last commit that you want to get back

2: create a branch name with the Sha-1 ID you selected eg: 8c87714

git branch your-branch-name 8c87714