How to fix Object does not exist on the server: [404] in Git

First, determine which files are affected. Run:

git lfs ls-files --all

Look for files marked with - (dash) instead of * (asterisk) - these are pointers without local objects.

To see which specific object is missing, check the error message for the SHA-256 hash, or run:

git lfs fetch --all 2>&1 | grep "404"

If someone else committed the LFS files without proper setup, they likely still have the original files locally. Ask them to:

# First, ensure LFS is installed
git lfs install

# Push all LFS objects to the server
git lfs push --all origin

If they have a specific object ID that's missing:

git lfs push --object-id origin <oid>

Replace <oid> with the SHA-256 hash from the error message.

If you're migrating a repository, you must explicitly handle LFS objects. From the original (source) repository:

# Clone with full LFS history from source
git clone <source-repo-url> repo-migration
cd repo-migration
git lfs fetch --all

# Add the new remote
git remote add new-origin <target-repo-url>

# Push everything including LFS
git push --mirror new-origin
git lfs push --all new-origin

Important: Run git lfs fetch --all before changing remotes to ensure all LFS objects are downloaded locally first.

Sometimes the error occurs for only some objects. Try fetching everything:

git lfs fetch --all

This downloads all LFS objects from all remote refs. If specific objects are truly missing from the server, they'll still fail, but this can resolve issues where objects exist but weren't fetched.

You can also try fetching from a specific branch or ref:

git lfs fetch origin main
git lfs fetch origin --recent

Ensure your Git LFS client is up to date and not using deprecated API settings:

# Check version
git lfs version

# Check for deprecated settings
git config -l | grep lfs

# Look for: lfs.batch = false (deprecated)

If you see lfs.batch = false, remove it:

git config --unset lfs.batch

Update Git LFS to the latest version:

# macOS
brew upgrade git-lfs

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install git-lfs

# Windows (with Chocolatey)
choco upgrade git-lfs

If you need to clone a repository but can't fix the missing LFS objects, you can skip the smudge filter:

GIT_LFS_SKIP_SMUDGE=1 git clone <repo-url>

This clones the repository with LFS pointer files instead of actual content. Files tracked by LFS will be small text files containing hashes.

Later, you can selectively fetch LFS objects that do exist:

cd <repo>
git lfs pull --include="path/to/specific/file.bin"

If you have access to the file from another source (backup, original author, hosting provider's LFS management interface), you can manually place it:

1. Get the SHA-256 hash from the pointer file:

cat path/to/file.bin
# Output shows: oid sha256:<hash>

2. Create the object directory structure:

# Extract first 2 and next 2 characters of the hash
# Example hash: abc123def456...
mkdir -p .git/lfs/objects/ab/c1

3. Place the file in the correct location:

cp /path/to/recovered/file .git/lfs/objects/ab/c1/abc123def456...

4. Run git lfs checkout to replace pointer with actual file:

git lfs checkout path/to/file.bin

If LFS objects are permanently lost and you need to continue working, you can configure Git LFS to allow pushing even with missing objects:

git config lfs.allowincompletepush true

Warning: This should only be used when objects are confirmed unrecoverable. It allows your repository to remain functional but those specific files will be broken for anyone who clones.

Consider committing new versions of the affected files to replace the broken pointers.