SVN Commit failed, access forbidden

The solution for me was to check the case sensitivity of the username. A lot of people are mentioning that the URL is case sensitive, but it seems the username is as well!


If the problem lies client side, this could be one of the causes of the error.

On clients TortoiseSVN saves client credentials under

Tortoise settings / saved data / authentication data.

I got the same error trying to commit my files, but my credentials were changed. Clearing this cache here will give you a popup on next commit attempt for re-entering your correct credentials.


You can get the "Forbidden" error if your user account lacks access permissions to a repository or repository path; it makes sense to check authorization settings for your user account. Make sure your system administrator hasn't provided you with No Access permission to the repository path.

If you are sure that permissions are set correctly, then double-check the URL you use. URLs in Apache Subversion are case-sensitive.

Additionally, I advise you to read articles on authorization in Subversion and VisualSVN Server:

  • SVNBook about path-based authorization.
  • VisualSVN Team's article about path-based authorization. It explains the principles of SVN authorization by comparing it with Windows Access Control.