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How to uninstall Git LFS on a Mac without breaking git

Run git lfs uninstall before you remove Git LFS, or git keeps calling a command that is gone. The order, and what to do if you removed it first.

3 min read

How do I uninstall Git LFS on a Mac?

git lfs uninstall
brew uninstall git-lfs

Order matters. Git LFS adds lines to your global git config, and the first command removes them. On our Mac, with Git LFS 3.5.1, git config --global --get-regexp filter.lfs showed four: clean, smudge, process, and required true.

Why does git say git-lfs command not found?

Git LFS was removed but its config lines were not. With filter.lfs.required set, git refuses to check out files in a repository that uses LFS rather than leave them half done. Remove the lines by hand:

git config --global --remove-section filter.lfs

What happens to LFS files in my repositories?

Files already checked out stay as they are. New clones of LFS repositories get small pointer files instead of the real content. Each repository's downloaded LFS objects stay in its .git/lfs folder until you delete them.

Common questions

How do I uninstall Git LFS on Mac?

Run git lfs uninstall to remove its git config, then brew uninstall git-lfs.

How do I fix git-lfs command not found?

Run git config --global --remove-section filter.lfs, or reinstall Git LFS and run git lfs uninstall.

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