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app password warnings after updating Bitbucket account in SourceTree to use an API token

TomCatchesides

I'm using SourceTree 4.2.18 on macOS.

Following the warnings about app passwords being deprecated, I've created an API token and edited my Bitbucket account within SourceTree to use the API token (following these instructions). All of my repositories are within this single Bitbucket account and I don't have any other accounts set up in SourceTree.

When I try to push a commit from SourceTree to my git repositories on Bitbucket, I'm still getting periodic "CHANGE-3222 - Functionality has been deprecated" errors. I get the same error if I try to clone one of my remote repositories.

How do I go about making SourceTree work with API tokens?

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Tomislav Tobijas

Hey @TomCatchesides ,

Have you tried clearing the macOS keychain? It should be something like Keychain Access 👀
I don't have Mac, but I know that a similar thing sometimes needs to be done on Windows in Credential Manager.

In Mac, it's something like:

Open Keychain Access on your Mac.
Search for bitbucket.org.
Delete any entries related to your Bitbucket account.
Restart Sourcetree and perform a Git action; it should prompt you for your credentials, where you can enter your email and API token

Potentially Sourcetree cached old credentials in the local repo config. You could open repo in Sourcetree > Settings (top right) > Remotes and check the origin remote. (select 'edit')

Cheers,
Tobi

lcapozzi

We have the same issue. We've been force to move to API Tokens, but the SourceTree client is not working any longer on some machines. With the same API Token and same credentials we don't have the same results. If we switch to another client (for example, Fork) everything works as expected. We cleared the stored Keychain entries, but that hasn't helped. We are basically locked out our entire codebase. Please, fix this asap!

TomCatchesides

Thanks for the suggestion @Tomislav Tobijas! I've tried what you've suggested and got SourceTree into even more of a mess now…

Deleted Bitbucket entries from KeyChain access.
Relaunched SourceTree.
Edit account: the API token has been cleared, so I reenter it and click Save.
A dialog window appears, asking for a password (see first screenshot). I enter my Bitbucket account password.

When I try to pull from one of the remotes in this account, I'm asked for a password again (second screenshot). I've tried entering my account password or the API token and in both cases I get the following error:

remote: You may not have access to this repository or it no longer exists in this workspace. If you think this repository exists and you have access, make sure you are authenticated.

fatal: Authentication failed for 'https://bitbucket.org/…/'

Editing the account and changing back to basic auth with the app password that I was previously using resolves this, but that is of course going away soon.

Screenshot 2026-06-23 at 14.46.07.png

TomCatchesides

@lcapozzi I'm glad I'm not the only one, but you'd expect Sourcetree to work with Atlassian's mandated changes wouldn't you?

lcapozzi

absolutely. Considering that I'm also on a paid account, it's utter nonsense that I'm unable to chat with a human being via the support page. I'm seriously considering migration to another platform.

lcapozzi

I'm on the same identical situation. I've also cleared the stored SSH credentials... everything.

lcapozzi

Found a workaround. Manually editing the remote and changing it to:
git@bitbucket.org:{username}/{repo}.git works without any issues. Now I only have to update around 100 entries...

TomCatchesides

I'm glad you've got yours working!

The remote URLs I have in SourceTree are of the form https://{username}@Bitbucket.org/{username}/{repo}.git so are you saying that I should change that to https://git@bitbucket.org/{username}/{repo}.git ?

If so, that doesn't work for me: I get this password dialog and authentication errors. Screenshot 2026-06-23 at 17.52.25.png

lcapozzi

remove https://. It should start with git@bitbucket.org.

TomCatchesides

Thanks, @lcapozzi

git@bitbucket.org/{username}/{repo}.git is giving me the following error (although obviously with my values for username and repo name):

fatal: 'git@bitbucket.org/{username}/{repo}.git' does not appear to be a git repository

fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Tiago_Lira

Having the same issue.
Changed bitbucket auth to use API token, sourceTree still gives me the same "App Passwords" error.

Mommens

For those who still have the issue this worked for us :

Add the API_token in the url ( This is very unsafe i know )

https://{bitbucket_username}:{API_token}@bitbucket.org/{workspace}/{repository}.git

Try to push something and you will see this error

remote: You may not have access to this repository or it no longer exists in this workspace. If you think this repository exists and you have access, make sure you are authenticated.

Remove the API_token from the url again and try pushing again. This worked for all our repos ...

This entire API_token approach feels highly unstable at the moment ! We hope they fix it soon, and we hope the above might help some of you !

lcapozzi

I think the main issue here is that the client is still looking for ssh credentials despite we chosen the API Token. I'm now trying to get another one of our Mac to get back to work and the struggle is real. For example: I've removed all saved credentials, edited the config and well-known hosts ssh files and also removed the account from SourceTree. After that, even restarting SourceTree and doing any git operation results in the client looking for the app password.

TomCatchesides

Thanks for sharing an approach that worked for you! As you say, including the API token in the URL feels very unsafe, which makes Atlassian forcing us to do this feel very counterproductive.

I'm going to hang on for another solution, even if that means moving to a different host for our repositories.

Mommens

Yep it's unsafe but just add it try to push once, remove it restart Sourcetree and for me the problem goes away

TomCatchesides

For what it's worth, I think I've verified that the Fork git client works well with Atlassian's new API token requirement for Bitbucket.

On my Mac, I've been using Fork with my existing repositories and set up my Bitbucket account using the API token that Sourcetree was struggling with. It seems to have been working well during the latest brownout period.

This reduces the urgency of moving away from Bitbucket, although I'm still tempted to do so after this recent experience.

Joas_bonetg

Adding the api_token in the url works for me also. I added it once, pushed successfully, then removed it again and it has worked for a couple of pushes and fetches now, even without restarting Sourcetree.

Colpocorto

All the suggested workarounds worked for just 1 or 2 days. Then the error appears again.

And, without any additional change, if I wait a couple of hours and try again, it will work. But later on, it throws the same error again.

Honestly, I don't believe this is an actual misconfiguration or authentication issue. I think it's a random, uncontrolled bug at the Atlassian side of things.

Tomislav Tobijas

I’ve created a bug on Atlassian’s public tracker so the Sourcetree team can investigate it further: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREE-8274

Feel free to watch and vote for the issue, and add any additional details or examples that might help with the investigation.

In case support asks for additional information, I'll forward it here.

TomCatchesides

FWIW, the Fork git client seems to work well with Atlassian's API tokens, at least on macOS. It's been working for me for four days now.

Colpocorto

Nah, I like SourceTree and it's free.

I'll wait one more week. If the issue hasn't been fixed, will migrate everything to Gitlab. Sadly, I love the integration with Jira and Confluence, but if Atlassian pushes me towards other Git service, I will move on.

lcapozzi

A little update: now SourceTree crashes every time I push or pull a commit. Way to go!

Richard Brookes-Tee

Annoyingly, I've been getting this whenever there was a brownout and fingers crossed seemed to have resolved it, at least for now, will have to try tomorrow and in a few days to make sure its still working.

I'm running the latest version of SourceTree 3.4.31 on Windows 11. During the brownouts I was seeing the App Passwords Deprecation message, so I tried following the instructions on the blog post saying to delete from windows credentials and sourcetree and readd the account with the API Token as the password. This didn't work and during the brownout kept failing.

I then decided to go to my Bitbucket account and revoke the APP Passwords. This didn't work.

I tried the Api Token in a curl command, and that worked.

curl -u your-email@example.com:YOUR_API_TOKEN https://api.bitbucket.org/2.0/repositories/YOUR_WORKSPACE/YOUR_REPO

So, knew it had to be something in SourceTree so started digging.

In the Options -> Tools -> Git, theres an option to Allow Sourcetree to manage my credentials via the Git Credential Manager. For me this was ticked. I tried unticking, made no difference, so I reticked it.

Further down in Options -> Tools -> Git theres a UI to choose which version of Git to Use (Embedded/System) and also Update Embedded. My was set to Embedded and was showing 2.2x.x, if I clicked System it showed 2.34.1, so I decided to Update Embedded.

Eventually this through up a prompt asking me to choose which Credential Manager I wanted to use. I choose "Manager" as the others, seemed to be deprecated windows versions, I also made multiples of everything showing, so just picked he bottom one "Manager".

Then Ensured (again) all bitbucket windows credentials and accounts in bitbucket were removed. Restarted sourcetree. Then fetched my repo and now I see a different UI asking for password / token that I'd never seen before. Much more modern.

I tried the right hand option that was labeled API Token, put in my email and api token and it worked, but then I tried fetching and it asked again and again. so i then tried the web login option, and put in my email and api token and it worked and seems to be working now after multiple fetches and trying other repos.

So, I'm not sure if this is the issue, outdated git tools Embedded in SourceTree (I only updated it a few weeks ago), or its the Git Credentials Manager being used by the Embedded version of Git (and me updating flushed it), but it seems to have worked for me.

Richard Brookes-Tee

onto a new day and its still working for me

Richard Brookes-Tee

day 3, still working

NLeather1

Thank you - updating the embedded git also changed my prompts - the only thing that has given some success. Changed the embedded version in Tools | Options - go to "Git" tab, scroll to bottom and click "Update Embeded". Now on cloning or pushing I get a new popup like you where I confirm "manager" as the choice and everthing then works. Not sure if I have re do credentials on every repo yet - time will tell

james_7u0yhp

This is getting messy.

I thought I was resolved, but today my Sourcetree once again started failing.

I am tearing my hair out. I have dozens of repos in Bitbucket - some of them 6 or 7 years old.

Still the only solution that is working for me is the x-bitbucket-api-token-auth:{APIToken}@bitbucket.org/... approach

I thought, like someone else here that this seemed to resolve it SourceTree wide. But no.

This is a buggers muddle.

TomCatchesides

FWIW, I've given up trying to get Sourcetree to work and moved to Fork. That does seem to play well with API tokens and seamlessly opened my existing repositories.

james_7u0yhp

And SourceTree gives me this warning when I configure things using the only approach that works. Come on Atlassian, this is a serious product - why are you leading us down a path that is clear so wrong - even the product that is the subject of this thread says so.

Screenshot 2026-07-14 at 15.27.46.png

Richard Brookes-Tee

@james have you tried ensuring that your Embedded Git is upto date. Tools -> Options -> Git, Scroll to the bottom and check what version its showing. Mine was on 2.2 something. After updating, it went to 2.51.0 and now its ok. I choose "Manager" as the credential manager from the little UI that asks you.

Mr_Spartan

I had similar issues when switching to API Tokens today. I managed to solve them with a complete uninstall of Sourcetree: Removing the app, deleting all its folders (1) and deleting related credentials from Windows Credential Manager (2).

To generate and install the API token, I used the info here (3). The only thing that is not obvious from the instructions is that you need to press "Refresh API Token" and add the token in the password field.

At some point after reinstall, it asked me to choose a credentials helper, and I think I selected "wincred".

Good luck!

(1) https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Sourcetree-questions/How-do-I-fully-remove-SourceTree-so-that-I-can-do-a-quot-fresh/qaa-p/1449638#M36837

(2) Control Panel > Credential Manager > Windows Credentials

(3) https://support.atlassian.com/bitbucket-cloud/docs/add-an-api-token-to-sourcetree-or-another-application/

Colpocorto

Know what?

I finally ended up moving my repos to Gitlab and... the issue reappeared! Exactly the same symptoms but using Gitlab instead of Bitbucket.

This suggests it's a 100% Sourcetree issue (not caused by the Sourcetree+Bitbucket combo)

lcapozzi

Still having issues after the latest update, especially on Windows (3.4.32)

Yesterday it was working, but today it decided that our API token is not a valid credential.

That's frustrating.

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