Git LFS Push of large files results in a failure with i/o timeout

Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.

Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Summary

When pushing large objects with Git LFS, the push fails with an i/o timeout error.

Environment

  • Bitbucket Server & Data Center

  • Git LFS

Diagnosis

The git client displays the following:

1 2 3 4 ~ username > git push Uploading LFS objects: 0% (0/1), 2 GB | 104 MB/s, done. LFS: Put "https://example.com/rest/git-lfs/storage/EXAMPLE/example-repo/d1786cec9c0d23b42e088b57b425f9f9fcfcad53": read tcp 192.168.0.1:1046->192.168.1.1:443: i/o timeout error: failed to push some refs to 'https://example.com/rest/git-lfs/storage/EXAMPLE/example-repo.git'~ username >

The key part of the message above is: read tcp 192.168.0.1:1046->192.168.1.1:443: i/o timeout

Cause

LFS is timing out waiting for the next TCP read or write. This is generally seen when pushing larger objects or a large commit, containing multiple large objects.

Solution

To resolve this, the user will need to increase the lfs.activitytimeout value for their git client. Depending on the version of your client, recent versions have a default value of 30 seconds. In the below command, we will increase to 60 seconds. 

1 git config lfs.activitytimeout 60

Resource: Git LFS config manual

Updated on March 20, 2025

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