The modern Git should able to detect remote branches and create a local one on checkout.
However if you did a shallow clone (e.g. with --depth 1
), try the following commands to correct it:
git config remote.origin.fetch '+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*'
git fetch --all
and try to checkout out the branch again.
Alternatively try to unshallow your clone, e.g. git fetch --unshallow
and try again.
See also: How to fetch all remote branches?