Visual Studio Community 2022 can't open Git repository

Antonio Benetazzo 0

From some days ago Visual Studio Community 2022 can't open the Git repository in my solution. If I click on "Select Repository" I can see it but even if I click on it nothing happens. Screenshot 2025-02-12 155331

1 answer

Michael Taylor 56,946 Reputation points

2025-02-12T16:18:54.94+00:00
VS just uses the CLI to read your local Git repo information. If it isn't showing anything then I wonder about your local repo information. I assume you have Git for Windows installed.

Go to the directory containing your Git repo.

Run git status and it should show you the current status. If you get nothing back then your local Git repo directory is corrupt.

Run git pull to update any changes from Github/Azure DevOps.

Run git checkout -b 'test' to create a test branch.

Switch back to VS and see what Git Changes says.

Check your Git options in VS.

Ensure the credential helper is GCM

Optionally disable the multi-repo option to see if the problem goes away
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Antonio Benetazzo 0 Reputation points

2025-02-13T07:43:06.2933333+00:00

Hi Michael, thank you for your answer.

Yes, I already have Git installed and working on VS Code o directly with a terminal everything works fine, I can push, pull, swhitch branch, etc. The only problem is Visual Studio.

I tried to set the credential helper to GCM (it was unset) and also to disable the multi-repo option, but appearently nothing changed, still the same problem.

It seems that Visual Studio recognizes the repo (in the "Select repository" dropdown in the right bottom of the screen there is the repo) but somehow it couldn't open it.

Antonio Benetazzo 0 Reputation points

2025-02-13T08:29:11.73+00:00

Sorry, duplicate comment...

Michael Taylor 56,946 Reputation points

2025-02-13T15:48:11.3466667+00:00

Based upon your screenshot it doesn't seem like the repo is open yet. Do you have a solution or project in the repo? Is the solution/project open yet?

Can you show us what your Solution Explorer looks like?

If you use Open Folder from the file menu and point it to your repo does it populate correctly?

Is the repo set up as a submodule or anything "odd" like that?

Antonio Benetazzo 0 Reputation points

2025-02-13T16:08:40.1866667+00:00

Yes, both solution and projects are opened, here is a screen of my Solution Explorer:

Anything "odd" as far as I know... I started creating solution and projects and later I created the repo in the folder. I worked happily for weeks, the problem appeared only few days ago...

I can also work on it, adding and editing files, but to work on Git I have to use an external terminal because Visual Studio can't open the repo.

Michael Taylor 56,946 Reputation points

2025-02-13T16:37:07.1766667+00:00

Hmm, How did you create your repo? Normally you'd either git init or more likely create the repo directly in Github/ADO and then clone it. I'm wondering if there is a disconnect in the .git folder. It's odd that the CLI works though.

Can you try the following:

Ensure your existing changes are pushed to Git so you won't lose them

Close VS

Clone the repo again using git clone or by starting VS and doing it there

Open the solution in the new repo directory that you cloned

Antonio Benetazzo 0 Reputation points

2025-02-14T08:16:41.68+00:00

I already tried cloning the repo again, nothing changed sadly...

Michael Taylor 56,946 Reputation points

2025-02-14T16:39:52.7033333+00:00

I assume that if you were to clone some other repo, any would do, it works fine? I'm also assuming that your Git global settings are properly configured and that you are authenticated with Github (or whatever).

Under the hood VS uses mingit for its Git calls. There are some known issues with mingit and VS doesn't, unfortunately, use any installed version of Git you may have. This can cause problems as you might see if you look at the VS bug reports. As a final test you might want see if the mingit CLI works instead. To do that you'll need to use a command prompt to get to mingit.

Open a command prompt

Navigate to your repo directory

Running git directly works you said

Run mingit instead. It is under your VS install directory.
<path-to-vs>\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TeamFoundation\Team Explorer\Git\mingw64\bin\git.exe status

If this call fails then the issue is with mingit and you should use Report a Problem in VS to report the issue to MS. They will likely need you to provide them a copy of your .git directory so they can see why it is having issues.
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Visual Studio Community 2022 can't open Git repository

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