error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout

Question

This question is similar to this one, but more specific.

I have a project with two branches: staging and beta. I develop on staging, and use the master branch to fix bugs. So if I'm working on staging and I see an error, I change to master branch:

git checkout master

and do the stuff:

git add fileToAdd
git commit -m "bug fixed"

and then I merge with both branches:

git checkout staging
git merge master
git checkout beta
git merge beta

And doesn't matter if there are other files on the working tree.

But now, when I try to change to the master branch, I'm getting an error:

error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout:
src/Pro/ConvocationBundle/Controller/DefaultController.php
Please, commit your changes or stash them before you can switch branches.
Aborting

I thought that I should remove the file from the staging area:

git reset HEAD src/Pro/ConvocationBundle/Controller/DefaultController.php

But I'm getting the same error. If I do git status, I get No changes to commit

Solution 1

Your error appears when you have modified a file and the branch that you are switching to has changes for this file too (from latest merge point).

Your options, as I see it, are - commit, and then amend this commit with extra changes (you can modify commits in git, as long as they're not pushed); or - use stash:

git stash save your-file-name
git checkout master
# do whatever you had to do with master
git checkout staging
git stash pop

git stash save will create stash that contains your changes, but it isn't associated with any commit or even branch. git stash pop will apply latest stash entry to your current branch, restoring saved changes and removing it from stash.

Solution 2

I encountered the same problem and solved it by

git checkout -f branch

and its specification is rather clear.

-f, --force

When switching branches, proceed even if the index or the working tree differs from HEAD. This is used to throw away local changes.

When checking out paths from the index, do not fail upon unmerged entries; instead, unmerged entries are ignored.

Solution 3

You can force checkout your branch, if you do not want to commit your local changes.

git checkout -f branch_name

Solution 4

I encountered the same problem and solved it by

git checkout -f branch

Well, be careful with the -f switch. You will lose any uncommitted changes if you use the -f switch. While there may be some use cases where it is helpful to use -f, in most cases, you may want to stash your changes and then switch branches. The stashing procedure is explained above.

Solution 5

This error happens when the branch you are switching to, has changes that your current branch doesn't have.

If you are seeing this error when you try to switch to a new branch, then your current branch is probably behind one or more commits. If so, run:

git fetch

You should also remove dependencies which may also conflict with the destination branch.

For example, for iOS developers:

pod deintegrate

then try checking out a branch again.

If the desired branch isn't new you can either cherry pick a commit and fix the conflicts or stash the changes and then fix the conflicts.

1. Git Stash (recommended)

git stash
git checkout <desiredBranch>
git stash apply

2. Cherry pick (more work)

git add <your file>
git commit -m "Your message"
git log

Copy the sha of your commit. Then discard unwanted changes:

git checkout .
git checkout -- . 
git clean -f -fd -fx

Make sure your branch is up to date:

git fetch

Then checkout to the desired branch

git checkout <desiredBranch>

Then cherry pick the other commit:

git cherry-pick <theSha>

Now fix the conflict.

3. Otherwise, your other option is to abandon your current branches changes with:

git checkout -f branch

View more solutions

Comments

[keltar]

Have you tried reset --hard? If you really sure you want to discard your changes. Or use stash if you don't.

[Manolo]

@keltar - No. I don't want to discard my changes. Just keep them on the working tree for a later commit

[keltar]

I don't think you can switch branches while keeping uncommitted changes, but i could easily be wrong - not really my field. Try git add your-file and commit.

[Manolo]

@keltar - I've worked before in this way. I don't want to commit any changes at staging now.

[keltar]

Perhaps your conflicting file wasn't changed when you tried that before. You have changes, git have to save them somewhere to restore later. It is very unlikely to be possible without commits. But if you really don't want to - use stash, it is exactly why it exists.

[Manolo]

@keltar - A detailed answer would be appreciated.

[glerYbo]

Possible duplicate of How to ignore error on git pull about my local changes would be overwritten by merge?

[Manolo]

Thank you. Are you sure that this won't do any changes on my working tree (not added files)? I don't want to loose my changes :-/

[keltar]

Oops, mistyped add when it is actually save.. updated. You mean, for other files? git stash save without file name parameter will save all modified files, if you want to (and revert them to latest-commited state). And having extra copy of directory tree never hurts, but i'm always paranoid about it.

[Manolo]

The thing would be save all modified files except the one I want to add to master branch. Also, an option would be pop the changes on other branch?

[keltar]

I'm not sure what you mean. Yes, you can apply stash on another branch, but it will simply replace files contents, not merge them.

[Manolo]

Perfect! Worked like a charm. Thank you ;-)

[CodyBugstein]

What if you want to view where these changes are?

[keltar]

@Imray what do you mean 'where'? There is git stash show, which may (or may not) be what you wanted.

[CodyBugstein]

I mean, I want to know where in my file I made changes that is causing this prompt

[keltar]

@Imray git status or git diff. Problem caused only by uncommitted changes, which is exactly what this commands will show.

[lukyer]

When my git got jammed (no local changes but still that error), this solution helped me!

[glerYbo]

The sudo is not necessary, it'll only break the file permissions. It's the same git command as posted by @kiki_yu one year before, but it's even worse.

[mfaani]

I don't get why this error has occurred. Isn't the whole concept of having branches to have separatation. I just did git checkout master and I got this error, which doesn't make any sense. what does master have to do with any other branch?

[keltar]

@Honey it have nothing to do with branches, problem is uncommitted changes. Checkout, by definition, have to reset your files to the state of master, but by doing so it will lose it's current contents, and since this contents aren't committed it would be impossible to return to this state later, hence an error so you wouldn't be upset about lost changes later.

[Owl]

Thanks, you saved my screen from getting a fist through it.

[Jacek Dziurdzikowski]

I lost my changes that way

[Jacek Dziurdzikowski]

I lost my changes that way

[Alexander Mills]

Yes you will lose changes by doing this, this should come with a big caveat.

[Romain Valeri]

@JacekDziurdzikowski So you lost your changes twice (see comment on kiki_yu's answer), both by applying solutions that very explicitly mentionned that discarding local changes was the very purpose. Is my sarcasm detector broken or... you're serious?

[Jacek Dziurdzikowski]

@RomainValeri Hmm, I guess that was my way of warning others which are begginers with git (they have to be beginners if reading this post) to be ready to say goodbye to any changes they made. I thought that time that changes done in one branch should stay on that branch until I checkout it again. Hint to newcomers who think that way too: use git stash :)

[Shashaank V V]

Worked like a charm. before this i used to back my changes up in notepad, stash the original, and replace it after switching branches. this answer made more sense and is clean and easy way to handle commits. :)

[jgmjgm]

I want it the otherway around. master is behind my branch and I'm up to date with master but it's still unable to switch branches. Must be a git bug.

[Philip Rego]

Incomplete answer. Downvote. The first command can give error. "No local changes to save"

[Sean Munson]

Not the answer. Why? What if I don't want the changes? What if the changes are whitespace and invisible?

[MAChitgarha]

Duplicate answer, for no reason. The first answer has even more information.

[MAChitgarha]

It can be more helpful if you give more explanation on this.

[mloning]

Use git stash drop <stash_id> to delete specific stash or git stash clear to delete all of them.

[Animesh Kumar]

I lost my local changes that way

[Ali Raza]

So if we again git stash save your-file-name, then it will remove previous stash or merge both of them?

[keltar]

@AliRaza it'll create new stash entry. You can view them via git stash list.

[mLstudent33]

if this problem occurred when I want to checkout master for the sole purpose of merging the current branch I am on, can I just merge master into the current branch and rename it master?

[mLstudent33]

actually upon trying this, I lost many changes and now my app does not work again.

[mLstudent33]

omg, I can't believe this. I lost two days of work. Strictly sticking to the Pro Git book from now and forget about branching, I'm going old school creating new files and copy pasting and then copy pasting back.