How to Fix ‘Local changes to following files will be overwritten’

The "Local changes to the following files will be overwritten" Git error indicates that there are some uncommitted changes that may conflict with further updates and don't let you pull or switch to a branch. This happens because Git can't merge changes you have done locally with those made in the remote repository or in another branch.

Git Warning Merge will delete your local changes to these files. 

The most common cause is that files in the remote repository or another branch can overwrite uncommitted changes in the files that Git is tracking.

It may also occur when there are competing changes from other branches, or you switch among them without saving changes.

Now we can discuss the solutions since you have identified the problem.

1. Override Local Changes using Pull Command

If you want to update your working directory to the latest version from the remote repository, then you could force a pull to overwrite local changes. That will delete all uncommitted changes in your path. Your local branch will be up-to-date with the remote branch in this process.

Be warned that this approach permanently erases any uncommitted local changes you might have made.

Open your IDE and run these sequentially:

Git pull git reset

Be careful not to do that before making sure you don't need your local changes, because it will instantly delete them.

2. Keep Both the Local and Repository-Based Changes.

You can resolve a Git conflict by committing your local changes before pulling and keep both your local and remote changes. In case of conflict, you may compare and manually merge with the help of mergetool or difftool applications. In such a way, you can choose what revision to keep and be sure that nothing gets lost.

$the_file_under_error is added to git. commit with git pull from git

Pull out the conflict resolution tools and go line by line when there is a merge dispute.

3. stash both changes without committing.

Saving your current edits saves you both local and incoming changes without having to commit. This allows you to save your uncommitted changes temporarily while pulling or switching branches.

save-all git repository with index

or

* Pull from git stash * Pop from git stash

If there is a possibility of any conflicts after stash pop, use git stash; otherwise, you may want to run this command instead of pop for not being ready to risk losing stored code because of conflict.

You can rebase instead of merging if this sounds like something out of your league. A rebase takes a set of commits and shifts  them to a single base commit. If rebasing, update code in this manner:

Commands: git stash; git pull origin master; rebase pull request

4. Update "some" parts of your code.

It would also prevent upgrades from being problematic, by reducing the impact of changes to only a few areas of your code. The fewer sections that you touch, the less chance of affecting sections that are updated later on. That can make it easier to merge or pull changes because it reduces the chance of accidentally overwriting or finding conflicts.

git checkout path/to/file/to/revert

Or

Here's git checkout code with path: path/to/file/to/revert

Also, note avoiding staging of the file through:

Using the following command: git reset HEAD filename: path/to/revert

The pull process will be as follows:

pull from git

Following that, it would try to fetch the version from the repository.

We hope that with this guide, you can more effectively solve the error "Local changes in the following files will be overwritten." without further luck.