How to Undo a Pushed Commit in Git: Simple and IDEA‑Based Methods

Many developers face the problem of having pushed erroneous code to a remote repository and need to revert to a previous, stable commit (e.g., a help‑document update). This article presents two effective solutions.

Simple Brute‑Force Method

If the mistaken changes are limited, you can compare the current commit with the target commit, manually delete the unwanted code, and commit the cleaned version. In IntelliJ IDEA, select the two commits, click Compare Versions, and remove the undesired sections. This approach works well for simple codebases, keeps the original erroneous commit in history, and is quick, but it becomes cumbersome for complex changes or extensive configuration files.

IDEA‑Based Elegant Method

For a cleaner rollback, reset the current branch to the desired commit using IDEA’s Reset Current Branch feature. Choose the hard option to discard all local changes and align the working tree with the selected commit.

Soft:  # Keeps your previous work and staged files unchanged.
Mixed: # Keeps your previous work but unstages files.
Hard:  # Restores files to the selected commit state; all local changes are lost.
Keep:  # Restores files to the selected commit state while preserving local modifications.

After the local reset, the erroneous commits disappear locally, but the remote still contains them. Open the push dialog and enable Force Push to overwrite the remote history. Note that forced pushes are blocked on protected branches; ensure the branch is not protected (e.g., not master).

Finally, verify that the remote now shows only the intended commit (the help‑document update) and that the three unwanted commits are gone.

Note: The screenshots illustrate the process in IDEA 2023; if your IDE differs, you may need to use equivalent Git commands.