How to update HTTP(S) credentials in sourcetree

[Josh Love]

I'm using Stash, Sourcetree and Crowd. Crowd authenticates with our AD server. One of our users' AD passwords expired today and he went to do some work via sourcetree and it wouldn't let him communicate with stash properly

He set up the repo initially as HTTP when he first cloned it. It asked him for his username and password and he says he remembers clicking "Save/remember password"

Where can I have him reset/remove these credentials.

I've already worked around the issue by setting up SSH keys for this user, but I'm interested in what the fix would be. Presumably something via the command line, as I've been through every GUI screen I would think could have the setting in it.

[David Keck · Accepted solution]

The only thing that worked for me was navigating to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Atlassian\SourceTree and removing the passwd file.

Once this file is removed, restart SourceTree and execute a fetch or something else that requires access to the repo in question. SourceTree will then prompt you for your password, rewriting the cached credentials.

I hope this helps. Shoutout to my buddy Nick for the assist.

If you're a macOS user, Auke states below that "you can find the password files per repo it in ~/Library/Application Support/SourceTree"

[Rajesh]

This saved my time. Thanks!

[Josh Hed]

This worked great.  I've been digging into this for over an hour!  Thanks.

[Rob Baragona]

This is also the only thing that worked for me.  Josh is lucky, i've spent about 5 hours on this between 2 different computer and creating new passwords!

THANK YOU!!

[christopher_cook]

This worked for me as well.

[Joseph Testa]

worked, thank you!!

[Someone Unknown]

Only this solved "Authentication failed for" error for me. Thanks!

[Ben Salvage]

Saved me too. Thank you!

[Auke]

Alternatively, if you're a mac user, you can find the password files per repo it in ~/Library/Application Support/SourceTree

[jonghyun,yi]

Auke ter Horst You saved me! Thank you so much! I'm also mac user.

[adanzilla]

Thank you David!!!

[Silvio Di Silvestro]

It worked for me. Thx a lot !

[Dan Ames]

Thanks David Keck! This saved me much pain and agony. 

[Christophe Racine]

Cool, worked for me, thanks a lot !

[HilcoVM]

Only way I could get access to my remote repo again. Thanks heaps!!

[Loc_rabbirt]

Thank you so much, it's helped :).

[Joe Wright]

This worked! Thank you very much.

[jingjing]

Thank you so much! That's the only thing works for me. I have been spending too long on this.

[jingjing]

Thank you so much! That's working!

[Sebastian Raemsch]

This worked for me too! Thanks.

[VenomBHz]

This was the solution!!! Spent some time trying to fix this... Thanks!!!

[David Keck]

I'm so happy to see that this helped! Auke, I'll update the main answer with your macOS findings.

[Sergiu Jardan]

Thank you. This worked for me.

[Mauricio Salazar]

This was the answer for me to delete the C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Atlassian\SourceTree\passwd file,  however, I also needed to change the username, and there was no way to do this through the sourcetree interface.

I found a file C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Atlassian\SourceTree\userhosts    which had the wrong username.  I changed it there and restarted and then it was able to push github repos to the correct username.

[David Teo]

thanks David. your solution worked for Authenticate error.

fyi:

1) the failure ocurred on my SourceTree v2.3.x.x, when I updated my network Windows password.
2) When I ran ST v2.0.20.1 executable, no authentication error was encountered.
3) When I re-ran v2.3.x.x again, the authentication error resurfaced again.
4) Then, I came upon your solution and tried it, v2.3.x.x is working fine now. The original password file was dated ard 2 months ago, likely the last time it was changed before i upgraded to v2.3.x.x?

5) Before all these, i also tried the Tools-> Options -> Password change method.
It says authenticated after giving the correct password, but when I fetched my Repo, the authentication will fail. So apparently the passwd file in (4) could not be updated, which caused repo actions to fail?

Maybe it's a version bug?

[Konstantin Pogorelov]

Yep! That is the solution. Thank you very much David! 

[Zorobabel]

Thanks, this is the right solution

[Lia Gelder]

Thanks David! This worked perfectly, only wish I had found your answer sooner!

[Otto Harju]

Works for me. Credentials are not visible anywhere on the UI, not on the Tools->Options->Authentication tab, repository settings or Windows Credential Manager. Is there a JIRA ticket about this issue?

[Shreya Rawal]

This worked!! :)

[Horacio Filet]

Nice, it worked, thank you!!

[kairaca]

Finally. Thank you!

[Philip Chan]

This worked for me with version 2.4.7.0

[Tracey Gibbons]

Thank you, and thanks to Mauricio Salazar for the userhosts info!

[James Attwood]

Thank you so much! This worked for me with version 2.4.8.0 Windows 7 64bit

[ronpackard]

Worked for me on the Mac.

[Antonio Sobalvarro]

Works perfect.

[David Hubbard]

Thanks - this also worked for me - however as it's a central file - if you are using other accounts through SourceTree (e.g. BitBucket, GitHub) then you may want to just remove a single account line from the file rather than deleting the whole file.

Plus, as the User account used by SourceTree is also referenced in answers here - To specify a specific user account (which is not the default) I found that setting userid in the repo path (Settings > Remotes > Edit) e.g. http://myRepoUser@myrepo:3000/organisation/myrepo.git worked for an internal git server.  

[Karl Zuvela]

This worked for me only after changing my Windows password again, as Sourcetree does not seem to accept passwords that begin with a special character such as '-'. Once I changed my password to begin with a letter then everything functioned as expected.

[isac joseph]

THanks maan..

[Olga Farber]

thank you so much! only this helped me, too

[abnersouza]

Not working for tried many times to login to git in vsonline it was working just fine, but removed the keys from keychain, also reinstall and tried to clean up everything, when i type the credential it does not work and show the following on my mac:

fatal: Authentication failed for;

Even the credentials are correct

[Manny Yu]

Works for me. Thanks much!

[Krzysztof Gałązka]

Worked like a charm! Thank you!

[Thyago Akira De Morais]

Great. Worked for me too. Thanks

[Robert Pal]

Worked! Thanks!

[oanselmogomes]

Funcionou pra mim! Obrigado! Thanks from Brazil!

[lokt-par]

This worked for me. Thanks

[nick]

also worked for me

[ccino]

Thank you, David.  This worked for me.

[Andrea Franchini]

Worked also for me.
Close Sourcetree, delete the password file, open Sourcetree, random fetch => correct login.

[Pumpkins_]

Worked for me, lost about 1 day of my life trying to fix it. 

[jessicafreeney]

Was trying to fix this for about a week and this fixed it

[Dean]

Saved my life. Thanks man!!!

[Anssi]

This solved my problem. Thanks.

[Ruben FitzSimons]

Many Thanks! Worked a treat!

[Levin Purba]

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

[rc_kamran]

Thanks alot !

[Alon Katz]

Thanks!

[Uma Vijayakanthan]

Yup did the trick, the problem started when i changed my Atlassian password, after few days i opened source tree and i couldn't login with new password, it kept asking for password over and over again. 

Once removed the passwd file then it all worked! They should address this on the SoruceTree app.

Thanks

Uma

[gargall82@gmail.com]

Thanks boy you are a great boy.

[Pravin Bhat]

This helped me save time, thanks David!

Atlassian should fix this annoying issue.

[Bandula Prasanna]

This really helped me getting resolved the same issue that wasted my time troubleshooting. 

Thank you very much!

[khorshed_alam]

Million Thanks! You are rock!! 

[Pablo Silvarrey]

Aleluya!

[Jaque Nande]

Thank you so much :D

[apttus_neshah]

thanks it worked like charm

[Vlad]

Thanks so much

[MrDEV0]

It works for me, thank you so much.

[Géza KISS]

There is now a menu item for it (see answer below):  Tools > Options > Authentication

[Chris D]

This half-solved my problem after upgrading to the latest version on Windows (3.3.8). I actually deleted all SourceTree folders under AppData just to be sure. Then I revoked my OAuth access to SourceTree from my Bitbucket account (through the website). Still wasn't working. I couldn't get past the "Registration" screen during installation that connects to BitBucket. It just stays on that screen after logging in and nothing happens.

Finally, I downgraded to 3.2.6 (what I had previously) and poof, everything was working again. I had to revoke/refresh my OAuth but at least I could open and work in SourceTree again.

[nurulamin]

Thanks - it worked for me too

[ALEXANDROS KESANOPOULOS]

It also worked for me.

If I change the password through UI it works for some hours and then it fails again probably because the passwd file is not updated.

Why does sourcetree uses credentials from two sources(windows credentials and passwd file)?

[gs_luismoreno]

Worked for me. Impressive that this is still an issue after years, using Sourcetree version 3.34.

[BartmanDilaw]

This save my day !

[Koen Lesschen]

I can't believe that Sourcetree still did not fix this bug. 

[Sebastián Salguero]

Great!

[Jeffrey Gillingham]

Thanks for this, it fixed my issue and saved me lots of time.

[Reema Dass]

Thankyou soo much this had worked for me and has saved a lot of time :-)

[Nicholas Hibshman]

Worked for me too! 

[Robert B]

almost 2021 and it is still the best option. thanks!

[ALEXANDROS KESANOPOULOS]

Don't expect any good in 2020!

[Roque BUGARIN]

Great !!! Thank you very much !!! 

[Genesis Tabuena]

Best solution out there, definitely saved time!

[Maxi Ramos]

Perfect! The SOLUTION

[Rich Newman]

I had a similar problem on Windows 10 when I wanted to use a new account on GitHub.  SourceTree was using cached credentials, and not displaying them on its internal dialogs, and I struggled to find a way to clear them.  I only worked out what was going on when I tried from Git Bash and had the same problem.  The credentials were definitely NOT on Tools -> Options -> Authentication.

The reason is SourceTree uses the Windows Credentials Store, so rather surprisingly you have to go to Control Panel.  Then Users and Accounts/Manage Your Credentials/Windows Credentials (it defaults to Web Credentials, which isn't what you want).  I had an entry for github.com under 'Generic Credentials'.  

I deleted this from the credentials screen and then tried to push from SourceTree, which now asked me for the new credentials and performed the push using them.

I don't know how easy Microsoft have made it for third-parties to at least show these credentials on their screens, but I would think this would be a reasonable enhancement for SourceTree to make.

[HenrikS]

Same procedure should be followed on Windows 7 if just trying to change the password through Sourctree options fails.

[Maksim Borisov]

Worked! thanks

[Breno Santos]

Thx man, solve my problem.

[Sudhanshu Dixit - HAM]

Thank you Rich, it worked for me, i was look at all the places for a solution. I had even removed the credentials from Web Credentials page. I saw there were 3 different credentials for git which when removed worked for me.

[Holly_Yelland]

This worked for me, thanks!

[Ancher Vijayakumar]

This worked for me, Thank you

[Ancher Vijayakumar]

Deleted these two lines and it worked.

[Helen]

This is what I needed, thank you!

So frustrating though, trying to figure this out. I'd really like to see a wiki page about this...

[gneocl]

This was really helpful! I spent a lot of time on this and you saved me even more, thank you!

[Oppenlander]

Just had this happen to me too. I'm suspecting the root cause of this is when the Atlassian migration occurred from using login names to e-mail addresses. These can be used interchangeably on Atlassian, but is probably not accounted for in Sourcetree? I had two password files stored, associated with a username and an e-mail. Sourcetree was probably looking at the wrong one, and there's no transparency in the Sourcetree UI.

[Tracy Lea Ogden]

2021 And this was the only thing that worked for me. Thanks for this!

[stevestreeting]

If this is Windows, you do this in Tools > Options > Authentication, you can delete or update any passwords there.

On the Mac, you can do the same by starting Keychain Access and locating the password entries there.

[Douglas Kazumi]

I had exactly the same issue on a Mac and could solve it using this answer.

[sagan9]

Had same issue on my mac, and solved it by changing credentials on Keychain Access. Thanks!

[Breno Santos]

Thx man, solve my problem.

[Frank Frank]

This doesn't work for me. When you hit delete, it will not do anything. When you hit edit, it will create a new entry with wrong information.

[behelit]

This STILL doesn't work, even in the latest builds. Authentication says all good but when you pull/push you get authentication failure. It obviously stores the repo pass in some convoluted system that doesn't work.

[Alexander Manoharan]

Thanks, it worked for me

[Brett Shellhammer]

Thank you ... this worked great !!

[Olga Farber]

Doesn't work in Windows, all says "authentication ok", but then pull gives again authentication error. Only thing that helped was to go and delete that file

[Ian Kleinfeld]

This worked great for me -- I just deleted my password, then it asked for it next time I accessed the remote and all was good.

When I just "edited" it, it didn't work. 

[João Martinho Marques]

Thanks man! It worked for me

[Allyn]

This worked for me, thanks!

[lme]

Thanks a lot !

[Daniel Brinca]

On SourceTree 2.7.6 you can easily reset your repo credentials, without having to mess manually with files, by following these steps:

1. Open SourceTree preferences
2. Go to the Advanced tab, to the far right
3. Find the host name of your repo under "Default usernames for URLs which do not include one", on the bottom
4. Press Edit, clear the username (leave it blank), and press OK
5. Close preferences, do a Fetch on your repo, and enter the new credentials when prompted

[Keri-Lyn Crovo]

I had to remove all the account information in here, have it prompt me for username/password (tried to clone empty repo from BBS in SourceTree), then I was able to connect enough to clone. What a pain!

[Elizabeth Brealey]

This solved my problem!  Thank you!

[Alvis Or]

Solved it for me on Mac. Thanks!

[sangbpark94]

This is the real solution!!!

[Ruedi Heimlicher]

Mac user: In High Sierra I found the Auth file in 

~/Library/Application Support/SourceTree

File: <username>@STAuth-github.com

I removed this file, restarted SourcTree and was prompted for the password in the push process.

[Eddy Zhang]

Update DATE: Dec/13/2019

Recently I received an email from github:

You recently used a password to access an endpoint through the GitHub API. We will deprecate basic authentication using password to this endpoint soon. We recommend using a personal access token (PAT) with the appropriate scope to access this endpoint instead. Visit: https://github.com/settings/tokens

This works for me. Thanks!

[Saad_ZARHLOUL]

HI all,

If after deleting the password file, authentication credentiels ...

still dosen't work, try to use terminal from sourcetree and do a fetch you'll have a window asking to enter your credentiels. and it will be working fine :)

[vishprak]

Simply worked. Thanks

[John McDougall]

That worked.  Thanks very much :-)

[niksman85]

In search bar type Credential manager - Windows credentials - find and modify password.

It worked for me.

[leeanne99]

It didn't work for me however I changed the 'Auth Type' in the Accounts to Basic and then manually added my new password. :)

[hithakshi_kulal]

Yup.. That worked!!! Thank you. 

Deleting git@STAuth-github.com file did the trick.