SourceTree Freezes When Cloning a Subversion Repository

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

Symptoms

After entering a Subversion URL in the Clone Repository source box, when SourceTree prompts you for the authentication details the spinning beachball cursor appears and the application freezes.

Diagnosis

This issue may occur the first time you authenticate against a Subversion URL, when the username is not known in advance.

Cause

This only occurs the first time you try to authenticate against a Subversion URL, and when the user name is not known in advance. It is due to an output flushing problem in the command-line svn client when it needs to prompt for both the username and password, such that SourceTree never sees the password prompt.

Solution

Workaround

There are several ways to work around this - you only need to pick one of these options.

  1. Include the username in the URL, ie https://username@hostname/path/to/repo

  2. On the command line, issue 'svn --username your_username https://hostname/path/to/repo and authenticate at least once. Subversion will cache this in your keychain for the future.

  3. Use SSH keys to authenticate

Updated on April 8, 2025

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