Restoring an overwritten repository

[cruzrafaelx]

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I initially had five sub-folders in my repository and i recently did a force commit to my repository. This ultimately overwrote every commits and files that I had in the repository leaving me with only one sub-folder. I also wanted to do git reflog but my commit history is empty hence I couldn't find the previous commit SHA.

I want this repository restored to the last push, which was approximately last week.:

repository https://github.com/cruzrafaelx/fullstack-open
branch: main

Can anyone help me? I badly need to have this restored since I am aiming to submit this to the University of Helsinki... I'm very desperate for support at the moment.

[abrahamVado]

You’re safe, here is the commit u are missing:
https://github.com/cruzrafaelx/fullstack-open/tree/main%40%7B1%7D
If you just need the files fast, you can download that state and re-upload (works, but loses history).

After some years, I recommend restoring history directly:

from any clone with push access

git push --force-with-lease origin a755ab9ab3e83125bb9b4a0a575239a78cc0c4d4:main

[cruzrafaelx]

Hey life saver! Thank you very much. Do you know how I could restore the commit history as well through this? And also how were you able to find this just for future references. Sorry I'm not that knowledgeable with GitHub...

[abrahamVado]

it was pure real life experience:
go to the url:
https://github.com/cruzrafaelx/fullstack-open/tree/main <- main is the branch
then add @{1} or @{2} or @{3} = https://github.com/cruzrafaelx/fullstack-open/tree/main@{1}
or if u have the date main@{2025-09-27} = https://github.com/cruzrafaelx/fullstack-open/tree/main@{2025-09-27}

[whatsupsumit]

If you force-pushed and lost all the commits locally and your reflog is empty, then sadly you can’t recover it just from your machine.

But since you said the code was pushed to GitHub last week, there’s still hope. GitHub keeps snapshots of your repository history, even after a force push.

👉 What you can do:🫡🫡🫡

Go to your repository on GitHub.

Click on the "Commits" tab. If GitHub still has the old commits, you’ll see them listed there. You can click on the last good commit and download the code (via the “<> Code” button → “Download ZIP”).

If the commit list is empty, then you’ll need to contact GitHub Support and request them to restore the repository to the last known push. Provide them with your repo link and explain you lost history after a force push — they can often help.

⚠️ In the future, avoid git push --force unless you’re sure. If you want to overwrite local changes, you can use git pull --rebase or create a backup branch first.