Git error on git pull (unable to update local ref)
command-line-interface, git
Solution
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
Problem
I only have a master branch and I'm 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 -> origin/master (unable to update local ref) ``` And when I run `git pull origin master` I get: ``` error: Couldn't set ORIG_HEAD fatal: Cannot update the ref 'ORIG_HEAD'. ``` I have been searching but can't find why.