Getting "fatal: Authentication failed for..." error
Asked by bbrewder:

In SourceTree, I'm getting the "fatal: Authentication failed for..." error when I try to Push/Pull from origin.

The Git terminal from SourceTree asks for my username/password and, when I enter it, it works correctly (I'm able to do a push/pull anyway). However, nothing I've tried will allow me to use the push/pull buttons in SourceTree. I've updated my Git username every place I've been able to see something that resembles a username, I've gone to Tools \> Options \> Authentication \> \[My Account\] and set the password (which is a private access token).

I saw a similar question that mentioned "There is a SourceTree Application password stored in the login keychain." But I have no idea what the login keychain is or how I can fix it in SourceTree.

Details:

- SourceTree version 2.1.10.0

- Git version 2.7.0

- Windows 10 Pro, 64 bit

- origin server is Visual Studio Team Services

I'm not sure why it stopped working (I haven't changed my VSTS password and all my private access tokens are still valid), but I seem to recall an odd password box that popped up a week or so ago that I believe came from SourceTree. I might have entered the wrong password, but didn't see any problems at that time (I haven't pushed/pulled since then, so wouldn't have seen any problems until today).

What am I missing?


Answers:
author: bbrewder
body: David's answer to this question worked for me...

<https://community.atlassian.com/t5/SourceTree-questions/How-to-update-HTTP-S-credentials-in-sourcetree/qaq-p/297564>
> The only thing that worked for me was navigating to C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\AppData\\Local\\Atlassian\\SourceTree and removing the passwd file.

Once that file was deleted, I just did a "Push" and it finally asked for my password.

A note to Atlassian, there should be a much simpler way to do this than spending hours searching the Internet looking for an answer. If getting the Authentication page to work as expected is not possible, then perhaps just a button that users that are having trouble can press on the Authentication page that would reset all the passwords (basically just delete this file for us).

comments: author: Mariano Gomez Bidondo
body: Thanks a lot! I was speending 2 days touching options in the sourcetree. This answerd save my day!


author: Aiuursrage2k
body: yeah it worked for me as well. I cant believe that source tree would be so lazy, this is a software thats used by millions of devs.


author: Akul Bhatnagar
body: Awesome!!!


author: Marcin Radomski
body: OMG thanks, It was driving me crazy


author: Dheeraj Sampath
body: I resorted to git bash since source tree stopped working. Thanks for the fix. Sourcetree! \\,,/


author: Sargis1991
body: For some retarded reason the field to type in your email adress is greyed out and it has an email adress in it that doesn't even have an atlassian account. I can not change my email adress whatsoever. I've deleted the account file and restarted it. I've checked the tools bar into the authentication and removed everything there. I've even reinstalled source tree and it still won't let me change the email adress. Holy shit I regret updating to this horrible version. I'm stuck not being able to fetch or pull anything. Even the crash report pop up crashes when I submit this shit.


author: Sargis1991
body: Fix: I removed **everything** from sourcetree and downloaded an older version.


author: Joel Dennis
body: Removing the passwd file worked for me. This was driving me crazy for the past few weeks. Thanks for the solution! I was actually looking for other options to use instead of Sourcetree until finding this fix. It would really helpful if there were an easier way to force the password prompt.


author: Steven Jaszkowiak
body: Does anyone know what the password file is called?


author: Eric Wolfe
body: thanks! This helped a lot. It is a pity that such a simple thing is broken.


author: Ramon Ramoss
body: THANK YOU!


author: Pavan Kumar
body: It worked. Now I'm able to do all the operations in source tree tool. Thank you


author: Alex King
body: Still working in 2018. Just solved my problem- next clone prompted for me to enter a password, and all went smoothly.


author: Radek Marik
body: I updated the SourceTree and the authentications failed. I wiped out the SourceTree (uninstall and the directory deleted) and installed 2.4.7.0 SourceTree. I had the same problem: after asking the password to the local GIT server the session failed because of SSH_ASKPASS. I wiped out the SourceTree again and installed 2.1.2.5 version. It works normally.

SourceTree is a great tool if it works. The obvious recent modifications to the authentification code do not work.


author: Arien Shibani
body: THANK YOU !!!


author: Gerardo Lopez
body: It worked for me too. Stuff like this is why I down vote SourceTree when asked if I would recommend it. It actually prompts an email to my manager to go back to TFS.


author: Trivikram Godse
body: Same here it worked for me after installing 2.1.2.5 Version. I hope atlassian is taking notes. GIT+SSH with username password does not work on 2.4.7.0. Please fix it.


author: duodvk
body: I've reinstalled sourcetree and git (without credential manager and with it), generated several github acess tokens and without success.... and your solution helps! So THANK YOU ! I think that it should be in the docs or in the bug tracker :)


author: Immanuel Comer
body: It seems that deleting (or perhaps renaming) a file worked for me as well. Thanks [@bbrewder](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1145498)!

Of course, I had to find the path for MacOS.

For anyone else looking for that path it is \~/Library/Application Support/SourceTree and then look for a file similar to **username\\@STAuth-path.to.gitrepository.com**

I simply appended the filename (just in case it didn't work). Afterward, I did a fetch (I'd imagine any server command would work) and I was prompted for a new password.


author: JB Rolland
body: Seriously?! a dev tool having such basic issue... I can't imagine amount of time lost by anyone using it including me

Thanks for the tips Brian


author: Thao Bui-Bond
body: I had the same error and I saw this post, but deleting the password file did not work for me. it turned out that my VSO personal access token was expired. I had to renew it. Just FYI for anybody who use visual studio online.


author: Sushmitha Hiremath
body: Thank you, this worked for me as well :-)


author: Krzysztof Ga??zka
body: Thanks a million!


author: James Dougan
body: Thanks sooo much. i have looked for hours for this.


author: K Hendrawan
body: Thank you so much... the tip still works today!


author: James Dougan
body: So before a fancy login box came up but my password never worked in it. But then when I detest this. The fancy login box didn't come up but a not so fancy box replaced it. The only difference is that my password worked on this one. So thanks for this :)


author: Robert Pal
body: Thanks a lot! That was the problem!


author: Satheesh Davidson
body: Thanks a lot


author: cramirez_ntst
body: Thank you! This was exactly the answer I was looking for.


author: James Boswell
body: Just hit this same problem. Deleting the pwd file worked.

This bug needs fixing! How many thousands of dev hours are wasted on this stupid bug!


author: yemkadel
body: Thanks a lot. it worked seamlessly


author: noldish
body: Still working. Thx a lot


author: AndreyNekrash
body: It's a pity, we have to do such things manually after a year...


author: paolo_gianfelici
body: Thanks a lot.  
After 1 year this bug is still present and it almost led me to use gitkraken.  
Please do better with sourcetree.


author: frankitox
body: Still valid! Thank you so much! I was getting crazy!


author: Martin Karachorov
body: Thanks for the solution   
not so fancy box accept my pass :D


author: DE JONCKHEERE Vincent
body: Thanks a lot !!!

A week of research for this bug...

Deleting the password file of attlasian does the work !


author: Imar Toledo
body: I do not know what to expect to fix this bug, thank you very much!


author: cjdennis
body: If you have multiple accounts set up, it's not necessary to delete the whole **passwd** file.

1. Make a copy of the **passwd** file just in case something goes wrong
2. Edit the original file
   * You'll see a pair of lines for each set of login credentials. The first line is the username such as **username@bitbucket.org**. The line immediately under it is the encrypted password.
3. Delete both lines for only the account you're having trouble with
4. Save the file
5. Sourcetree will prompt you for the password the next time you try to use that account, and as long as you enter it correctly, it will work and be saved


author: Levin Purba
body: Almost the end of 2018 and this problem still persist. Deleting the passwd file was the only way to get around.


author: Till O'Rrly
body: It's 2019 already, but still not all heroes wear capes.


author: AtronSeige
body: Thank you! After 3 hours of struggling, I can finally START the introduction on bitbucket.


author: piercop
body: Delete of password file worked for me. THANKS


author: Richard Peller
body: After hours of searching..... This finally worked!!!!

This is a flaw, and should be fixed!. Come on!


author: scott-garner
body: also after hours and hours of searching lol.. cmon guys..


author: Vlad
body: It helps, thank you!


author: dot2globe
body: Thanks for this answer. This helped me as well.


author: Thomas_Hertz_Orre
body: Ha thanks, lost 30 min of my life there.


author: Geoffrey Falade
body: This was a killer... Glad to see I'm not the only one :)


author: Bart?omiej Je?ewski
body: 2020, it's still working. Thanks! :)


author: fluxdigital
body: Same here, 2021 and still an issue. I'd tried removing my accounts in sourcetree in the options menu and re-authing with the pat token and still no joy. I did this though as cjdennis mentioned instead (so I didn't loose passwords set for my other accounts):  

[cjdennis](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2459148) [Dec 18, 2018](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Sourcetree-questions/Re-Re-Getting-quot-fatal-Authentication-failed-for-quot-error/qaq-p/965247/comment-id/26763#M26763)

If you have multiple accounts set up, it's not necessary to delete the whole **passwd** file.

1. Make a copy of the **passwd** file just in case something goes wrong
2. Edit the original file
   * You'll see a pair of lines for each set of login credentials. The first line is the username such as **username@bitbucket.org**. The line immediately under it is the encrypted password.
3. Delete both lines for only the account you're having trouble with
4. Save the file
5. Sourcetree will prompt you for the password the next time you try to use that account, and as long as you enter it correctly, it will work and be saved


author: Fiaz Mohammed Raffi
body: Despite all saved account under Tools \> Options \> Authentication, this password file is not getting deleted. Only after manual deletion is when SourceTree prompted for login and things worked fine then

Thanks for this DAY SAVER TIP !!!


author: David John Brown
body: And here I am - a git newbie four years on and still tripping over this. Wasted time and got severely demoralised when stuck at such a basic point with such a simple solution (simple when you know how!).


author: alluziion
body: 2022 running v3.3.8 and I'm still routinely having to use this fix. Poor effort by Atlassian. Bitbucket's UX isn't great as it is but furthermore it's riddled with bugs. Thanks for the tip.


author: Andreas Adam
body: Wow - that helped!


author: Genesis Tabuena
body: Worked like a charm! Thanks!


author: Andrew
body: Very good. Thanks. I quit using SourceTree for yet another git GUI because of this problem...then hit the same problem there and realised it wasn't a SourceTree thing.

Back to SourceTree now.


author: Igor S
body: Thank you! Same today 13.09.2023. on Sourcetree version 3.4.14 .  

Command: git -c diff.mnemonicprefix=false -c core.quotepath=false --no-optional-locks ls-remote 'https://\*\*\*\*\*\*\*'

Output:

Error: fatal: Authentication failed for 'https://\*\*\*\*\*\*\*'

<br />

<br />

Issue was solved for me as described upper with:  
going into path C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\AppData\\Local\\Atlassian\\SourceTree and removing the passwd file.  

Starting again source tree, going to clone, and prompted me for password.  

Before I had authentication failure, even in tools -\> options -\> authentication, user was OK authenticated.   

This was making confusion, like why was authentication failure, if user is successfully authenticated in settings now we know that there is additional file with authentication parameters.  
Thank you.


author: Mandar Godse
body: Somebody at Atlassian needs to write a blog with clear steps to resolve this issue, this continues to be an issue for many people. I had originally reported my problem in 2017 and we are in 2019 and people still seem to be struggling with basic functionality such as login.

I run into these errors every time my password is changed. Recently I had to uninstall and reinstall the software to get authenticated. Is this really a solution ? I hope somebody at atlassian takes this seriously and write a clear documentation about this issue. When done please post the link to this issue.


author: Vincent Simonin
body: Go to Tools -\> Options in SourceTree and then go to the Authentication tab on the Options popup. Delete all of the stored passwords. Try again, you should have another opportunity to enter authentication credentials. I'm using 3.0.8 and that worked for me.

comments: author: Vincent Simonin
body: That did the job for me, thanks.


author: Narendra Kekane
body: Great it's work for me as well. My **Source tree version was 3.0.12**


author: Megan Moore
body: This worked for me. I had just updated my DI2E (Bitbucket) password, and even though I tried updating the password with the edit button in SourceTree, that didn't work. Removing all the passwords worked. I am using 3.0.17.


author: DEEPA
body: Thank you.

This worked for me.


author: euan brown
body: If you are using sourcetree with bitbucket, I had to go in and change the Username to an email address in the file location below. I believe bitbucket swapped the log in from using usernames to email addresses but source tree wouldn't take it on it's normal login pop up screen.

C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\AppData\\Local\\Atlassian\\SourceTree\\accounts.json

comments: author: Eric Wolfe
body: Thanks for menting this, though I had to switch the Username back to our network user from the email address.


author: Advait Deshpande
body: I am putting all the steps I tried in the sequence and finally one thing worked. The solutions are suggested by other Stash/Sourcetree Users.  

++**Solution A, Didn't work. Might work for others. Good Luck!**++

1. Make sure SourceTree is closed
2. Make sure the files are backed up in the following folders before removing the files
3. Remove files "bookmarks.xml", "opentabs.xml", "userhosts" in C:\\Users\\\<username\>\\AppData\\Local\\Atlassian\\SourceTree\\
4. Remove file in C:\\Users\\\<*username* \>\\AppData\\Local\\Atlassian\\SourceTree.exe\<*random_string* \>\\\<*version_number*\>\\user.config
5. Open SourceTree again to test if it worked or not.

++**Solution B. Didn't work. Might work for others. Good Luck!**++

Navigating to C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\AppData\\Local\\Atlassian\\SourceTree and removing the passwd file.

++**Solution C. Worked. Might be due to above steps performed above.**++   

Sourcetree \> Tools \> Authentication \> Deleted my Stash account \> Added it again.  

I hope the above post helps!

comments: author: Ales Svoboda
body: Thanks for summarization. Solution A worked for me.


author: Anton
body: Solution B works perfectly


author: Amol B Pawar
body: B \& C option works together


author: Pedro Henriques
body: B worked for me, thanks


author: gmmaduro
body: JUST GO TO TERMINAL IN THE CORRECT FOLDER

TYPE: GIT PUSH

USERNAME AND PASSWORD

DONE!

comments: author: Alan Rasmussen
body: That was easy. Worked for me with Window 7. Thanks.


author: Chris Schiebel
body: this was the only thing that worked for me on a mac, thank you!


author: Linus B?rstr?m
body: For anyone still having this issue, you can go in Repository\>Refresh Remote Repository. This seem to re-enable the authentication form .


author: geminipro
body: great stuff, i am [looking](https://eobipensions.pk/) like for the same ....cheer up


author: Martin Ku?ela
body: Great.

Removing the passwd file.

For 3 years I had to put username and password into URL as an workaround before finding this answer!!!


author: samsunoh22
body: The "fatal: Authentication failed" error in SourceTree typically occurs when there is an issue with the stored credentials or authentication settings.

comments: author: samsunoh22
body: You can do the following things

* Update SourceTree
* Clear Stored Credentials
* Check Git Configurations

Open a Git terminal from SourceTree and verify your Git configurations by running the following commands

git config --global user.name  
git config --global user.email  
git config -l  

Take [small steps](https://smallstepsbd.ae/) and try these things, make sure to backup any local changes or repositories.


author: Hercules
body: So here we are in 2022, and these problem are still present!

Driving me NUTS.

I suddenly had authentication problems while contacting a remote git repository from Sourcetree, possible initiated by a password change on Windows.

Contacting over a web interface and from Visual Studio did WORK.  
So I was sure of my credentials.

But trying all sorts things within Sourcetree did NOT change a damn thing.

* Editing the credentials. Resulting in a bunch of saved passwords with different names. Why are there 2 right away with a single repository anyway?
* Removing all of them. After which they SEEMED to be copied from the ones checked in Visual Studio. Yet still no success.
* I was thinking of reinstalling an old version of Sourcetree, assuming some automatic update had messed things up. But I did not have other installation files.

Finally I found this post which saved my day, after hours of frustration.

I renamed the file C:\\Users\\USER\\AppData\\Local\\Atlassian\\SourceTree\\passwd.

Then I asked my credentials and it all suddenly worked again, creating a new passwd file.

Come on Atlassian!


author: binla
body: Awesome!! it's work fined for me.


author: Alan Wasem
body: On my Mac for the past 3 or 4 weeks I have had to reset my .ssh key once or twice a week. The way I do this is by searching for a folder in finder (shift + command + g) \~/.ssh/ and delete the bitbucket files .pub and all others. Then in sourcree accounts it reverts to another .ssh key I have in the folder. Hold option to change the button (where copy to clipboard usually is) to show generate new bit bucket key, with option held click that new button. It will ask for a pass phrase which can be whatever and will never ask for it again and then sometimes brings up another window where you'll have to type your atlassian password. Once source tree has generated a new key the save option is still greyed out. You have to click the drop down menu for ssh or https and then either toggle it from https or just click ssh again and you'll see the save button enable. At this point you can copy the new ssh key and add a new key on the bitbucket settings page. I hope this helps someone it's crazy frustrating.

comments: author: imampriyanto
body: Yes, it absolutely helped me


author: chaowangplaytech
body: I delete password file and it works, soure tree is terrible


author: daniel_foster
body: Nothing is working for me. This is so frustrating, I have lost days messing about with this and two of my team are also having the same issue. Its not like I have an urgent build for 100,000 users that I need to get out the door or anything. I think its time to take my business elsewhere

comments: author: Alan Wasem
body: ugh


author: omaracrystal
body: I solved the issue by looking up Keychain Access with spotlight then deleted the Application password for that particular git url. I then opened the repository through SourceTree and it prompted me for a new password. The Keychain Access was then updated and worked after that


Tags: login