Unity Scene Files Disappeared After Using Git Push and Rebase

[JeongwonKim-kr]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

Hello,

I need help with a serious problem that happened while I was uploading my Unity project to GitHub using Terminal.

I was using Git commands to push my project to GitHub, and during the process I also encountered problems involving rebasing and merge conflicts. After completing some of these commands, I discovered that files and work inside my Unity scene had disappeared.

The project files are very important to me, and I am worried that I may have accidentally deleted or overwritten my work while using Git.

Is there any way to recover the missing Unity scene files or restore a previous version of my project using GitHub history, Git reflog, or files from my local Mac?

I would really appreciate any help or advice on how I can recover my lost work. Thank you.

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[nirav-gajera]

Hi @JeongwonKim-kr ,

Don't panic — Git records almost everything, and even if files are gone from your working directory, they're likely still in Git history somewhere. A few recovery steps in order:

First, check your reflog — this shows every HEAD movement Git made, including rebases and resets:

git reflog

You'll see a list of commits/operations with timestamps. Find the one right before things went wrong. If you see something like rebase: continuing or reset, that's likely where your files went. Note the commit hash (e.g., abc1234).

Reset to the commit before the problem:

git reset --hard abc1234

This restores your working directory to that point. If this gets your files back, you're done — just be more careful with the next rebase/merge.

If reflog doesn't show it, check all branches and the stash:

git log --oneline --all --graph
git stash list

Your files might be on a different branch, or stashed. If you see them in stash: git stash pop or git stash apply stash@{0}.

Check .gitignore — if you're using the default Unity .gitignore, some folders like Library/, Temp/, and *.meta files are ignored by default. They're not in Git and won't be restored — you'd need to regenerate them in Unity (reimport assets).

If none of that works — the files were actually deleted in a commit — you can still recover them:

git log --diff-filter=D --summary | grep delete

This shows deleted files. Find your scene file, then:

git checkout abc1234^ -- path/to/your/scene.unity

Replace abc1234 with the commit that deleted it, and ^ means "the commit before the deletion."

For the future: commit more frequently, use branches for risky operations (rebase on a test branch first), and keep your local working directory as a backup until you're confident in Git's state.

[JeongwonKim-kr]

Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate you taking the time to explain the recovery steps. Your advice helped me find my Git repository and reflog, and I discovered that my old wip commit still contains my missing Unity scene files. I was really worried that I had permanently lost all my work, so this was a huge relief.

Thank you again for your clear explanation and help!

[nirav-gajera]

happy to help! Good luck with the rollout, and happy coding 🚀