change.
> Forwarded from a private email to me, have not reproduced yet. --[[Joey]]
+
+Update: Got a repo tarball sent to me that reproduces the problem. It looks like
+this:
+
+ git annex upgrade
+ upgrade (v5 to v6...)
+ caught exception: Somehow no branch is checked out
+ <callstack>
+ failed
+ (recording state in git...)
+ git-annex: upgrade: 1 failed
+
+.git/HEAD points to refs/heads/annex/direct/master,
+but that ref does not actually exist yet.
+
+The repo was created with git-annex 7.20190731-gbb16a2610
+and this sequence of commands:
+
+ git init .
+
+ git config user.email "email@example.com"
+ git config user.name "Name Name"
+ git config annex.alwayscommit false
+ git config annex.autoupgraderepository false
+ git annex init foobar
+ git annex direct
+ echo "aaaa" > a && echo "bbbb" > b
+ git annex add a b
+ git annex drop --force a
+
+Note that lack of git-annex sync, which is why the branch
+never got created. The index file has the adds staged of course.
+
+So, fixing this unusual case needs the upgrade code to go ahead and commit
+the staged index first.