Account Authorization with OAuth Failing, Unable to get secret

[Tommy Yang]

Ran into an issue with sourcetree/git where I couldn't pull/checkout any branches. I assumed it was some type of authorization error with my account, so I removed my credentials to try and readd them. But every time I try to authorize with OAuth or Basic, Sourcetree will hang for a long time and then I get these error messages. I'm pretty sure I have my password right, and I am signed in to bitbucket on my web browser Google Chrome.

"Unable to get secret"
"Error reading JObject from JsonReader. Path ", line 0, position 0."

[Vanessa Mouriz]

Hi Tommy,

This "Unable to get secret" / JsonReader error is a known Sourcetree issue with the OAuth token exchange for Bitbucket — Sourcetree's embedded auth flow sometimes fails to parse the JSON response it gets back, often triggered by antivirus/firewall SSL inspection, a corporate proxy, or just a corrupted local token cache.

A few things to try, in order:

1. Switch to an App Password instead of OAuth. This is the most reliable fix. In Bitbucket, go to Personal settings → App passwords → create one with Repository read/write scopes. Then in Sourcetree, edit the hosting account, set Authentication to "Basic" instead of OAuth, and use your Bitbucket username + the app password (not your account password).
2. Clear cached credentials. On Windows, open Credential Manager and remove any entries related to Bitbucket/Sourcetree. On Mac, check Keychain Access for the same. Then re-add the account in Sourcetree from scratch.
3. Check for SSL interception. If you're on a corporate network or have antivirus with "HTTPS scanning" enabled, that can corrupt the OAuth response mid-flight. Temporarily disabling it to test will confirm if that's the cause.

App passwords tend to be more stable long-term anyway since Bitbucket is moving away from OAuth-based app integrations in several flows.

kind regards!