Recovery

What Git can recover

Git is not an automatic backup for every file on your computer. It can recover work that has been recorded in Git, usually through a commit.

If a file was never saved, staged, committed, or pushed, Git may not be able to recover it. Commit important milestones before risky edits, large rewrites, or folder cleanup.

Undo local changes

If you edited a tracked file and want to return it to the last committed version, use git restore.

git restore path/to/file.tex

To discard all current local changes in tracked files:

git restore .

Use this carefully. The current uncommitted edits will be removed.

Unstage files

If you used git add too early, remove the file from the staging area without deleting your edits:

git restore --staged path/to/file.tex

This keeps the file changed in your folder, but it is no longer staged for the next commit.

Recover deleted files

If a tracked file was deleted by mistake, restore it from the last committed version:

git restore path/to/file.tex

This works only if Git already knew about the file. A new untracked file that was never committed cannot be recovered this way.

Restore from an older commit

If you need the version of one file from an older commit, first find the commit hash in Git Graph or with git log.

Then restore that file from the selected commit:

git restore --source <commit-hash> path/to/file.tex

This is safer than resetting the whole repository because it restores only the file you name.

Before running recovery commands, check the current state:

git status

If the current edits may still matter, commit them, stash them, or copy the important text elsewhere before discarding changes. Prefer file-level restore commands before using broad reset commands.