Contact Support for Garbage Collection
Asked by Sam Koepnick:

I feel like I'm missing something obvious, here.

I accidentally committed some huge files.

Fair enough.

I went through the remediation link and ran through the process. The files are no longer shown in the repo (I only have the single branch).

The docs say, contact support to explicitly run GC on my repo. I tried contacting support but the contact option is greyed out and I'm apparently only limited to community answers.

This is despite the fact that this is likely a systems problem that requires intervention from an administrator.

This is admittedly my fault, but this entire process has been extremely frustrating since there is no self-help option but I'm not special enough to have a person pay attention to me.


Answers:
author: Theodora Boudale
body: Hi Sam,

I checked the repos your account has access to and I found one with a size over the 4 GB limit. I assume this is the one where you accidentally committed large files? In case it's a different one, please let me know the last three letters of the repo name (or any combination of letters that will help me identify it).

I ran a git gc on the repo with a size over 4 GB but its size hasn't been reduced. If this is the repo in question, what action did you take to reduce the repo's size? Did you commit file deletions? Or did you rewrite history?

In case you committed file deletions, please note that this will not remove the large files from the history. You can use a tool like BFG repo cleaner to rewrite history and remove large files from older commits:

* <https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner/>

Please ensure you take a backup of the repo before this process.

In case you have already rewritten history:

* what output do you get locally if you run **git count-objects -Hv** in the local repo?
* did you push your changes to the Bitbucket repo, or were you unable to do so because the repo was already above the size limit?

If your workspace is on the Free plan you are entitled to community support only. We do have staff checking the community regularly and we can help with cases where action needs to be taken from our side.

Kind regards,  
Theodora

comments: author: Sam Koepnick
body: Thank you, [@Theodora Boudale](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/818086) for checking back in with me.

Since this was a pretty early stage, I blew away the repository and just began anew.

In hindsight, I do wish I had gone through the procedure that you've outlined just for the sake of having the data.

I have also added your advice to our documentation so that if it happens again on a repository that cannot easily be re-created, we'll have some more avenues to try before contacting you.

I do genuinely appreciate the help you all have provided! And I apologize for the tone of my initial question. After re-reading it, it came off as far more sarcastic than I had intended.

Thank you again!


author: Theodora Boudale
body: Hi Sam,

You are very welcome!

I just wanted to add that in case you accidentally push large files and

* the commit with the large files is the last one on the branch
* you haven't merged the branch with the large commit to other branches

you can also follow the steps in our documentation here to undo the last push:

* <https://support.atlassian.com/bitbucket-cloud/docs/reduce-repository-size/#Undoing-the-last-push>

You could use BFG repo cleaner if you have made additional commits after the large commit or if you have merged the branch with the large commit to other branches.

Please note that the repo will still need a git gc after using BFG and after undoing the last push if the repo's size was below the 4 GB limit. If the repo's size doesn't get reduced after doing any of the actions, you can create a question in community and request a git gc.

Please feel free to reach out if you ever need anything else!

Kind regards,  
Theodora


author: Mikael Sandberg
body: I have notified the Atlassian Support team that is on here so just hang tight and they will help you.


author: Laurie Sciutti
body: Hi [@Sam Koepnick](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5391627) and welcome to the Community! You ARE special enough to have people pay attention to you. Have you tried contacting Support here: <https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/>

comments: author: Sam Koepnick
body: I appreciate the validation!

Unfortunately, I need to convince the helpdesk system of the same. And I'm genuinely hoping that I've missed something simple and I can give a hearty facepalm emoji.

I've tried that link before. But after filling out the details, the rest of the form implies that I only have access to community support.

I've hunted all over the page for a hidden submit button or whatnot.

![gc.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/297862i6694779319D724C6/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "gc.png")


Tags: atl-rvw

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