Reset local repo to be exactly the same as remote repo
Solution 1:
git reset --hard HEAD^ will only reset your working copy to the previous (parent) commit. Instead, you want to run
git reset --hard origin/master
Assuming remote is origin and the branch you want to reset to is master
Solution 2:
You could delete the current branch, and create the branch again at the remote/branchname commit
git branch -D branchname
git checkout remote/branchname
git branch branchname