new to bitbucket, can't get git clone to work because of authentication failure

[Thomas Deaton]

i am following the instructions in your company's youtube tutorial video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYkghPud4dA

git clone https://[username]@bitbucket.org/[project]/[reponame].git

when i type in my password, i get this error:

Authentication failed for 'https://bitbucket.org/[projectname]/[reponame].git/'

why is this not working?  there are no special characters in my password.

[Ben]

Hi Thomas,

The most common issue that users are experiencing related to authentication is due to the deprecation of GIT username/password in favour of App Passwords on 01/03/2022:

• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Bitbucket-articles/Announcement-Bitbucket-Cloud-account-password-usage-for-Git-over/ba-p/1948231

You will need to make use of an authentication method such as an App Password for communicating to GIT via HTTPS. It's likely that the remote URL has not yet been updated to include the App Password and this is why the command from the video that you are executing is failing (as it requests a password instead which is no longer supported).

Essentially, when connecting via HTTPS you will use your App Password alongside your username seperated with a ":" character.

Therefore if you are authenticating to GIT over HTTPS to push/pull you will need to update your remote URL's to include the App Password:

git remote set-url origin https://USERNAME:APP_PASSWORD@bitbucket.org/workspaceID/reposlug.git

Once the remote URL has been updated, please attempt to clone again.

I would suggest ensuring also that all stored passwords related to authentication over GIT are cleared from your machine (ie Credential Manager for Windows, Access Keychain for Mac or /etc/shadow folder for Linux).

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

- Ben (Bitbucket Cloud Support)