Miku SANO / Git: How I Resolved "error: remote unpack failed: index-pack failed" 🤕

Created Thu, 03 Jul 2025 19:53:25 +0000
315 Words
git trouble-shooting

While editing code, my machine crashed unexpectedly. After recovering, I encountered a persistent error message every time I tried to git push:

me@my-machine:~/some/directory$ git commit -m "refactor: updating changes"
[main a3d7e5b] refactor: updating changes
 4 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 41 deletions(-)
me@my-machine:~/some/directory$ git push
Enumerating objects: 17, done.
error: object file .git/objects/47/91d93efad0c600dd4de05433259e97f94d1425 is empty
Counting objects: 100% (17/17), done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (9/9), done.
error: object file .git/objects/47/91d93efad0c600dd4de05433259e97f94d1425 is empty
fatal: unable to read 4791d93efad0c600dd4de05433259e97f94d1425
remote: fatal: early EOF
error: remote unpack failed: index-pack failed
To github.com:my-repository.git
 ! [remote rejected] main -> main (failed)
error: failed to push some refs to 'github.com:my-repository.git'

Initial Troubleshooting

First, I backed up my .git directory. Then, I tried the solution suggested in this Stack Overflow answer:

me@my-machine:~/some/directory$ find .git/objects/ -type f -empty -delete
me@my-machine:~/some/directory$ git fetch -p 
me@my-machine:~/some/directory$ git fsck --full
Checking object directories: 100% (256/256), done.
missing blob 4791d93efad0c600dd4de05433259e97f94d1425
dangling blob 699c5e3050e4e3bdcfb22e6577bc4656db0f5c3f
...

Unfortunately, the missing blob was not restored, and the error: remote unpack failed persisted.

The Solution

I found a helpful hint in another Stack Overflow post:

I cloned the repo in a new location and checked it out to the branch I was working on. I shelved the changes in the current corrupted repo (as I had a few changes I could not afford to lose) and then copied over the .git folder from the newly cloned repo to the old repo. Then I ran git pull which then worked.

Following this advice, I:

  1. Cloned the repository to a new directory.
  2. Checked out the branch I was working on.
  3. Shelved (saved) any uncommitted changes from my corrupted repository.
  4. Copied the .git folder from the new clone to my original (corrupted) repository.
  5. Ran git pull in the original directory.

After these steps, everything worked as expected. The error was resolved, and I was able to push my changes again.