How to Fix "Your flutter checkout has local changes" When Upgrading

If you see this message when running flutter upgrade:

Your flutter checkout has local changes that would be erased by upgrading.
If you want to keep these changes, it is recommended that you stash them via "git stash" 
or else commit the changes to a local branch. If it is okay to remove local changes, 
then re-run this command with "--force".

It means your Flutter SDK folder has local changes in the Git repository, and upgrading would overwrite them.

Why does this happen?

• You edited files inside the Flutter SDK directory.
• Temporary cache or config files changed, and Git detected them.
• You are on the dev or beta channel and manually modified files.

Solutions

1. Save changes temporarily (git stash)

If you want to keep your changes but still upgrade:

cd $(flutter sdk-path)
git stash
flutter upgrade

After upgrading, restore your changes:

git stash pop

2. Commit to a backup branch

If the changes are important and you want to keep them permanently:

cd $(flutter sdk-path)
git checkout -b backup-changes
git add .
git commit -m "Backup my changes"
flutter upgrade

3. Force upgrade (discard changes)

If the changes are not important and can be removed:

flutter upgrade --force

Or manually reset:

cd $(flutter sdk-path)
git reset --hard HEAD
flutter upgrade

Important: If you never modified Flutter SDK manually, these changes are likely harmless cache files. It is usually safe to use --force.

Tip: You can check exactly which files have changed with:

cd $(flutter sdk-path)
git status