Fix: Visual Studio 2022 Git Commit button grayed out

This is yet another post in the category of “I’ll record it here so that the next time I run into it, I can remember what it was”. And if it helps anyone else in the meantime, that’s a bonus.

I was trying to push some changes to an Azure Repos repository (as part of an Azure DevOps project).

No matter what I tried, the Commit button in the Git window was grayed out.

I kept thinking of all the normal issues:

At least one file had been changed
I had added a commit message (in case that was required)

I started thinking that there must have been a policy that required a related work item, and I didn’t have one. I started looking in that direction.

The Issue

What I had forgotten was that this was the first time I’d used Visual Studio 2022 on that computer.

What Visual Studio was doing a spectacularly poor job of telling me, was that I hadn’t configured my email address, etc. for Git.

Git menu with Settings option

In the settings, this area was still blank:

Git settings completed

Once I had completed them, the Commit button was enabled. I really wish things like this were just a little more obvious to the end user. A grayed out button tells you almost nothing.

Hope that helps someone.

2024-09-25