How to change URL of Git remote origin

📋 Table Of Content

In this post, we will learn how to change URL of a remote Git repository.

Git is a decentralized version control system that lets us work on different projects in collaboration with other programmers.

So whatever changes we make to the project locally, Git allows us to push them to the remote repository too.

Now sometimes while working in Github or Bitbucket we might need to change the git origin remote to a new URL.

So how can we change the remote URL of our git repository?

To change the URL of our Git remote origin we have to use the git command git remote set-url and specify the name and the URL of the new Git remote origin.

Let's see the process in a step-by-step process.

Change Remote Git Repository URL

Step 1: Go to the working directory of your local project.

Step 2: Find the remote git URL using git remote -v, this will display the current Repository URL

origin  https://github.com/USERNAME/Repository.git (fetch)

origin  https://github.com/USERNAME/Repository.git (push)

Step 3: Change the old URL with the new Git URL using this command:

git remote set-url origin https://github.com/USERNAME/GitRepo.git

To get the URL of your Git Repository go to your Github project repository and then click on “Code" button on the right corner. There you will find your repository URL.

update change git repo url

Step 4: Once you have changed it, you can verify your new remote origin URL, by using the command:

git remote -v

You can also change the Git remote URL of your repo manually from the .git/config file too. However, it is not a recommended way.

To change it manually, go to your .gitfolder in your root directory and open the config file.

You will see something like this:

[core]
    repositoryformatversion = 0
    filemode = false
    bare = false
    logallrefupdates = true
    symlinks = false
    ignorecase = true
[remote "origin"]
    url = https://github.com/USERNAME/repo-name.git
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
[branch "master"]
    remote = origin
    merge = refs/heads/master

Here, you can change the URL of your git remote origin and save the config file. Then verify the changed URL from your terminal using git remote -v.

FAQ:

What is a remote origin in git?

Whenever we clone a repository to our local computer, it automatically creates a connection called origin pointing back to the cloned remote repository.

How to add empty folder/directory in Git

Solved "No such remote origin" Git Error Fatal