Fix Git Error: You Need to Resolve Your Current Index First

The error: You need to resolve your current index first in Git means a merge conflict and you are not able to try out another branch if you don’t resolve the conflict. This error message often indicates that a merge has failed or file conflicts.

Which files, mergers, and conflicts are there? If you are a beginner using Git, these words would be unfamiliar to you. Git is a version control platform that allows several people to concurrently work on files and to push a local copy into the one that is saved in the cloud. This will overwrite the changes in the cloud with your local copy when you change any downloaded (or already pushed) code.

Git’s got a branch idea. A master branch is available and several branches are branched off. This error particularly happens when you move (using the checkout) from one branch to another, and files on the current branch are in conflict. You can’t swap branches if they’re not solved.

Table of Contents

Causes the Git Error: You need to resolve your current index first

The reasons for this error are very small, as stated earlier. This error would occur to you because:

A merge has failed and before going on to other activities, you have to resolve the fusion conflict.
There are conflicts in your current files (or in your targeted branch) and you cannot check out branch or push code because of those conflicts.

Solution 1: Resolving the Merge Conflict

If Git doesn’t resolve the merge automatically, it will leave the index and the working tree in a specific condition that will allow you to have all the details you need to resolve the merge. Conflict-bearing files are particularly marked in the index and you will receive this error message before you fix “Error: You need to resolve your current index first” issue and update the index.

Resolve all the conflicts. Check and make modifications to files that have conflicts, since they are labelled with the index.
After all the disputes have been settled, add the file and commit.

An example is:

$ git add file.txt

$ git commit

You can add your personal comment. An example is:

$ git commit –m “This is READUS Git repository”

3. After you have resolved the conflict, try checking out of your existing branch and see if the problem is fixed.

Solution 2: Revert your Merge

Type in the following command in the code editor and hit enter to abort and revert the merge.
```
$ git reset --merge
```
If the above command doesn’t resolve the error, you can revert every merge to its previous commit by executing the following command.
```
$ git reset --hard HEAD
```

Solution 3: Merge the current branch into the Head branch

Type the following command and hit enter on the keyboard to switch to the current branch.
```
git checkout <>
```
Now create a merge commit that discards everything from the master branch and keeps everything in your recent branch by executing the following command.
```
 git merge -s ours master
```
Now execute the following command to switch back to the master branch.
```
git checkout master
```
Finally, merge both the branches by executing the following command in your code editor.
```
git merge <>
```