TortoiseGit Credential helper never works for me

Question

This has been torturing me for a long time since I first began to use TortoiseGit 1.8.5.

The credential helper is there, but it never works!

I googled a lot, but none of the methods worked, eg, TortoiseGit save user authentication / credentials

Yesterday I downloaded and installed the latest 1.8.10 hoping the bug should be fixed. But still nothing.

Can anyone write a step-by-step configuration tutorial on how to enable this helper tool? Great thanks!

BTW, there is a partially working method. I have to use Advanced mode in the "Credential helper" dropdown list; and then add a new entry for my github repo URL. But that can only remember username.

Answer 1

If you install Git Extensions (or most modern Git GUI tools) it'll add these lines to C:/Users/{yourusername}/.gitconfig

[credential]
    helper = !\"C:/Program Files (x86)/GitExtensions/GitCredentialWinStore/git-credential-winstore.exe\"

This says "store the git credentials in the Windows credentials vault." If you don't have that line, either reinstall the affected program or choose a different Git GUI tool. (All else being equal, TortoiseGit is pretty awful. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/10957742/702931)

Ok, so you've now got a credential helper. How to edit the credentials stored? Go to Control Panel -> User Accounts -> your account (you're probably already there) -> Manage your credentials -> Windows Vault (you may already be there) -> scroll down to the git:https://github.com line and click the down arrow. You can choose to edit or delete the credentials here.

Answer 2

wincred has a bug when there is an @ in your username. See this issue in msysgit.

So, if you are using Bitbucket for instance, you might be signing in with an email address, but if you edit your account you'll see that you also have a non-email username. Use that and it should work.