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     -> 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

Answer 1

I solved as below:

git remote prune origin

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

Speaking from a PC user - Reboot.

Honestly, it worked for me. I've solved two strange git issues I thought were corruptions this way.

Answer 5

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.