So, I’ve run into this many issues several times, when I mistakenly make commits on the master branch rather than to another branch. Jeez sometimes this is hell!!

There are two approaches you can follow:

  • Undo on master and commit to new branch.
  • Move commits to the other branch.


Undo and Commit to New Branch

You’re less likely to make an error with this approach. Especially if you need to commit the changes to a new branch.

  • Make sure you are on the branch you were committing to.
    git branch


  • Check how many commits you want to roll back to.
    git log


  • Undo the commits.
    git reset HEAD~N
    where ~N refers to the number of commits to undo.


  • Checkout to a new branch.
    git checkout -b newBranch


  • Add your changes.
    git add -A
    this flag: -A adds all new/modified/deleted files in the current directory to staging.


  • Commit the changes.
    git commit -m "commit message goes here!"


Move the commits to the other branch.

There’s a higher chance of making an error so be extra careful here!! With this approach the branch you were supposed to commit to exists.


  • Get the commit id of the commit.
    git log
    Copy the commit id


  • Reset your current branch back by 1 or as many commits you need.
    git reset --hard HEAD~1


  • Move the commits to a newbranch
    git checkout -b newbranch


  • Checkout to a new branch.
    git checkout -b newBranch


  • Move the commits to the new branch
    git reset --hard < commit_id >


  • Push both branches with force
    git push --force origin newbranch


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