Can I recover a branch after its deletion in Git?

Question

If I run git branch -d XYZ, is there a way to recover the branch? Is there a way to go back as if I didn\'t run the delete branch command?

Answer 1

IF you are using VSCode... and you synced your branch with the server at some point before deleting it...

Note that git branch delete only deletes the local copy, not the copy on the server. First, in the Git panel (git icon on left toolbar), look through the branches and see if your branch is still there under "origin/your_branch_name". If so, just select that and you should get your code back (suggest that you immediately copy/paste/save it locally somewhere else).

If you didn't see an "origin/your_branch_name", Install the GitLens extension. This allows you to visually poke around in the server repositories and locate the copy you synced to the server. If you have multiple repositories, note that it might be necessary to have at least one file opened from the desired repository in order to make the repository appear in GitLens. Then:

1. Open the GitLens panel

2. Expand the repository

3. You should see a list of categories: Branches / Contributors / Remotes / Stashes / etc

You should find YourLostTreasure under "Branches" or possibly under "Remotes -> Origins". Hopefully, you will see a branch with the desired name - if you expand it, you should see the files you changed in that branch. Double-click the file names to open them, and immediately back up that code.

If you don't immediately see your lost branch, poke around and if you find something promising, immediately open it and grab the code. I had to poke around quite a bit until I found TheGoldenBranch, and even then the code was missing the last one or two saves (possibly because I failed to sync to server before attempting-a-Branch-Merge-but-accidentally-clicking-Branch-Delete). My search was unnecessarily lengthened because when I first found the branch I wasn't completely sure the name was correct so kept looking, and it took some time to re-find that first branch. (Thus, Carpe Carpum and then keep looking.)