diff --git a/pkg/argocd/git.go b/pkg/argocd/git.go
index 7d30cec3..71422c2e 100644
--- a/pkg/argocd/git.go
+++ b/pkg/argocd/git.go
@@ -158,14 +158,6 @@ func commitChangesGit(app *v1alpha1.Application, wbc *WriteBackConfig, changeLis
 		return err
 	}
 
-	// Set username and e-mail address used to identify the commiter
-	if wbc.GitCommitUser != "" && wbc.GitCommitEmail != "" {
-		err = gitC.Config(wbc.GitCommitUser, wbc.GitCommitEmail)
-		if err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
-	}
-
 	// The branch to checkout is either a configured branch in the write-back
 	// config, or taken from the application spec's targetRevision. If the
 	// target revision is set to the special value HEAD, or is the empty
@@ -247,6 +239,14 @@ func commitChangesGit(app *v1alpha1.Application, wbc *WriteBackConfig, changeLis
 		defer os.Remove(cm.Name())
 	}
 
+	// Set username and e-mail address used to identify the commiter
+	if wbc.GitCommitUser != "" && wbc.GitCommitEmail != "" {
+		err = gitC.Config(wbc.GitCommitUser, wbc.GitCommitEmail)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
+
 	if wbc.GitCommitSigningKey != "" {
 		commitOpts.SigningKey = wbc.GitCommitSigningKey
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/argocd/update_test.go b/pkg/argocd/update_test.go
index 416de5d3..1bd1d3e2 100644
--- a/pkg/argocd/update_test.go
+++ b/pkg/argocd/update_test.go
@@ -3363,6 +3363,7 @@ replacements: []
 		app := app.DeepCopy()
 		gitMock := &gitmock.Client{}
 		gitMock.On("Init").Return(nil)
+		gitMock.On("Root").Return(t.TempDir())
 		gitMock.On("ShallowFetch", mock.Anything, mock.Anything).Return(nil)
 		gitMock.On("Checkout", mock.Anything, mock.Anything).Run(func(args mock.Arguments) {
 			args.Assert(t, "mydefaultbranch", false)