When does Git refresh the list of remote branches?

Question

Using git branch --all shows all remote and local branches. When does Git refresh this list?

On pull/push? And how do I refresh it using Git Bash?

Answer 1

To update the local list of remote branches:

git remote update origin --prune 

To show all local and remote branches that (local) Git knows about

git branch -a 

Answer 2

The OP did not ask for cleanup for all remotes, rather for all branches of default remote.

So git fetch --prune is what should be used.

Setting git config remote.origin.prune true makes --prune automatic. In that case just git fetch will also prune stale remote branches from the local copy. See also Automatic prune with Git fetch or pull.

Note that this does not clean local branches that are no longer tracking a remote branch. See How to prune local tracking branches that do not exist on remote anymore for that.