Git: Cannot see new remote branch

Question

First, double check that the branch has been actually pushed remotely, by using the command git ls-remote origin. If the new branch appears in the output, try and give the command git fetch: it should download the branch references from the remote repository.

If your remote branch still does not appear, double check (in the ls-remote output) what is the branch name on the remote and, specifically, if it begins with refs/heads/. This is because, by default, the value of remote.<name>.fetch is:

+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*

so that only the remote references whose name starts with refs/heads/ will be mapped locally as remote-tracking references under refs/remotes/origin/ (i.e., they will become remote-tracking branches)

Check whether .git/config contains

[remote "origin"]
    url = …
    fetch = +refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master

If so, change it to say

[remote "origin"]
    url = …
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*

Then you should be able to use it:

$ git fetch
remote: Counting objects: …
remote: Compressing objects: ..
Unpacking objects: …
remote: …
From …
 * [new branch]            branchname -> origin/branchname
$ git checkout branchname
Branch branchname set up to track remote branch branchname from origin.
Switched to a new branch 'branchname'

The simplest answer is:

git fetch origin <branch_name>

Let's say we are searching for release/1.0.5

When git fetch --all is not working and that you cannot see the remote branch and git branch -r not show this specific branch.

1. Print all refs from remote (branches, tags, ...):

git ls-remote origin Should show you remote branch you are searching for.

e51c80fc0e03abeb2379327d85ceca3ca7bc3ee5        refs/heads/fix/PROJECT-352
179b545ac9dab49f85cecb5aca0d85cec8fb152d        refs/heads/fix/PROJECT-5
e850a29846ee1ecc9561f7717205c5f2d78a992b        refs/heads/master
ab4539faa42777bf98fb8785cec654f46f858d2a        refs/heads/release/1.0.5
dee135fb65685cec287c99b9d195d92441a60c2d        refs/heads/release/1.0.4
36e385cec9b639560d1d8b093034ed16a402c855        refs/heads/release/1.0
d80c1a52012985cec2f191a660341d8b7dd91deb        refs/tags/v1.0

The new branch release/1.0.5 appears in the output.

2. Force fetching a remote branch:

git fetch origin <name_branch>:<name_branch>

$ git fetch origin release/1.0.5:release/1.0.5

remote: Enumerating objects: 385, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (313/313), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (160/160), done.

Receiving objects: 100% (231/231), 21.02 KiB | 1.05 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (98/98), completed with 42 local objects.
From http://git.repo:8080/projects/projectX
 * [new branch]        release/1.0.5 -> release/1.0.5

Now you have also the refs locally, you can checkout (or whatever) this branch.

Job done!

Doing a git remote update will also update the list of branches available from the remote repository.

If you are using TortoiseGit, as of version 1.8.3.0, you can do "Git -> Sync" and there will be a "Remote Update" button in the lower left of the window that appears. Click that. Then you should be able to do "Git -> Switch/Checkout" and have the new remote branch appear in the dropdown of branches you can select.