Git pull - Please move or remove them before you can merge

Question

I am trying to do a git pull origin master from my server but keep getting the error:

Please move or remove them before you can merge.

There are no untracked files, but it seems like it has issues with the ignored files for some reason.

I tried running a git clean -nd to see what would be deleted and it lists a whole bunch of files that are ignored in .gitignore.

How can I fix this so I can do a pull?

git reset --hard origin/master helped stackoverflow.com/questions/1125968/… People below make things crazily complex, before trying simple solutions. Git ... — Rauli Rajande
– Rauli Rajande, Commented Sep 28, 2017 at 16:18

stason · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-13 17:08:10Z

287

I just faced the same issue and solved it using the following. First clear tracked files by using :

# caution: it will **delete all untracked files**
git clean -d -f

then try git pull origin master

You can view other git clean options by typing git clean -help

edited Nov 13, 2023 at 17:08

stason

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answered Oct 30, 2017 at 17:34

Neha

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5 Comments

Stepan Yakovenko Over a year ago

Doesn't work, I still get: error: The following untracked working tree files would be removed by merge: logs/recommend.log Please move or remove them before you can merge.

Zappy.Mans Over a year ago

it is work . This solution should be accepted as answer.

Atif Shafi Over a year ago

what if i wanted to force merge incoming files in my local repo

kayhanozturk Over a year ago

thanks, it's working for me. I've used before reverting commit.

M.Zhu Over a year ago

This answer needs to be preceded by a CAUTION. I performed this command and git deleted a lot of untracked useful files under my directory, and it was unrecoverable.

DURGESH · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-23 05:36:39Z

38

To remove & delete all changes git clean -d -f

answered Mar 23, 2018 at 5:36

DURGESH

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1 Comment

Steve Over a year ago

Thanks. That worked for me. One thing to watch for: it deletes all untracked files so if you have a .env file or other local config with secrets in it, make a backup first

Mauricio Gracia Gutierrez · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-03 21:22:03Z

33

Apparently the files were added in remote repository, no matter what was the content of .gitignore file in the origin.

As the files exist in the remote repository, git has to pull them to your local work tree as well and therefore complains that the files already exist.

.gitignore is used only for scanning for the newly added files, it doesn't have anything to do with the files which were already added.

So the solution is to remove the files in your work tree and pull the latest version. Or the long-term solution is to remove the files from the repository if they were added by mistake.

A simple example to remove files from the remote branch is to

$git checkout <brachWithFiles>
$git rm -r *.extension
$git commit -m "fixin...."
$git push

Then you can try the $git merge again

edited Apr 3, 2020 at 21:22

Mauricio Gracia Gutierrez

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answered Mar 16, 2016 at 15:27

Zbynek Vyskovsky - kvr000

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7 Comments

Brett Over a year ago

I just added the repo to the server itself, so I went an extra step and removed it completely... then I did a git add --all on the fresh repo so it now should not be adding any ignored files. Then I committed and then did a git pull origin master but same problem still exists.

Zbynek Vyskovsky - kvr000 Over a year ago

@Brett : the issue seems to exist in remote repo, not the local one. Remove the local and then pull. After that remove the files which caused the issue, commit and push. Since then the files should be ignored.

Brett Over a year ago

What do you mean by local? The repo on my server? The repo is in three places, local (my dev machine), bitbucket (remote) and the server - the issue I am experiencing is on the server. I don't want to psychically remove these files, just ignore them - they exist on the server, but nowhere else.

Zbynek Vyskovsky - kvr000 Over a year ago

@Brett : I mean the one from which you pull the update, I.e. the bitbucket. I assume you'll do the above on your local dev repo and push the changes to bitbucket. Then you'll simply run pull on server and as the files will be removed from bitbucket repo, the issues will be gone.

Brett Over a year ago

Thing is, the files it is having problems with are ignored files that exist on the server only - the server has some folders that don't exist locally and hence I added them to .gitignore; so I'm not understanding why Git can't just ignore them - they aren't in the repo and are ignored.

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Amr Omar · Accepted Answer · 2023-04-11 14:32:30Z

7

I got this error due to the case-sensitive names of files. What I did is change the configuration of git to ignore case-sensitive by running

git config core.ignorecase true

then tried again to pull again and it worked.

git pull

You may return the ignorecase back to false

git config core.ignorecase false

answered Apr 11, 2023 at 14:32

Amr Omar

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Comments

David · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-09 08:06:51Z

6

If there are too many files to delete, which is actually a case for me. You can also try the following solution:

1) fetch

2) merge with a strategy. For instance this one works for me:

git.exe merge --strategy=ours master

answered Jul 9, 2018 at 8:06

David

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Comments

General Grievance · Accepted Answer · 2023-05-15 14:40:35Z

2

git reset --hard

It actually reset all changes on your local server.

edited May 15, 2023 at 14:40

General Grievance

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answered May 13, 2023 at 10:05

Uchchwas Das

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Comments

Deepak G · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-12 06:05:58Z

0

If you are getting error like

branch master -> FETCH_HEAD error: The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten by merge: src/dj/abc.html Please move or remove them before you merge. Aborting

Try removing the above file manually(Careful). Git will merge this file from master branch.

answered Feb 12, 2018 at 6:05

Deepak G

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