diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 7eff80a97e4..6f4bdf452ee 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ cache:
     - ~/.cache/pip
     - ~/.nvm/nvm.sh
     - ~/.npm
+before_install:
+  - sudo apt-get install -y git
 install:
   - ./scripts/travis/install_elasticsearch.sh
   - pip install tox-travis
diff --git a/docs/install.rst b/docs/install.rst
index 4d6f85d625b..d7234bf9283 100644
--- a/docs/install.rst
+++ b/docs/install.rst
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ since it will help you to avoid clutter in your system-wide libraries.
 
 Additionally Read the Docs depends on:
 
-* `Git`_ (version >=2)
+* `Git`_ (version >=2.17.0)
 * `Mercurial`_ (only if you need to work with mercurial repositories)
 * `Pip`_ (version >1.5)
 * `Redis`_
diff --git a/readthedocs/rtd_tests/tests/test_backend.py b/readthedocs/rtd_tests/tests/test_backend.py
index 3acae2d2036..239c2dc8f57 100644
--- a/readthedocs/rtd_tests/tests/test_backend.py
+++ b/readthedocs/rtd_tests/tests/test_backend.py
@@ -1,21 +1,33 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 
 from __future__ import (
-    absolute_import, division, print_function, unicode_literals)
+    absolute_import,
+    division,
+    print_function,
+    unicode_literals,
+)
 
+import os
 from os.path import exists
+from tempfile import mkdtemp
 
 import django_dynamic_fixture as fixture
 import pytest
 from django.contrib.auth.models import User
-from mock import Mock
+from mock import Mock, patch
 
 from readthedocs.config import ALL
 from readthedocs.projects.exceptions import RepositoryError
 from readthedocs.projects.models import Feature, Project
 from readthedocs.rtd_tests.base import RTDTestCase
 from readthedocs.rtd_tests.utils import (
-    create_git_tag, make_test_git, make_test_hg)
+    create_git_branch,
+    create_git_tag,
+    delete_git_branch,
+    delete_git_tag,
+    make_test_git,
+    make_test_hg,
+)
 
 
 class TestGitBackend(RTDTestCase):
@@ -118,6 +130,51 @@ def test_check_invalid_submodule_urls(self):
             repo.checkout('invalidsubmodule')
             self.assertEqual(e.msg, RepositoryError.INVALID_SUBMODULES)
 
+    @patch('readthedocs.projects.models.Project.checkout_path')
+    def test_fetch_clean_tags_and_branches(self, checkout_path):
+        upstream_repo = self.project.repo
+        create_git_tag(upstream_repo, 'v01')
+        create_git_tag(upstream_repo, 'v02')
+        create_git_branch(upstream_repo, 'newbranch')
+
+        local_repo = os.path.join(mkdtemp(), 'local')
+        os.mkdir(local_repo)
+        checkout_path.return_value = local_repo
+
+        repo = self.project.vcs_repo()
+        repo.clone()
+
+        delete_git_tag(upstream_repo, 'v02')
+        delete_git_branch(upstream_repo, 'newbranch')
+
+        # We still have all branches and tags in the local repo
+        self.assertEqual(
+            set(['v01', 'v02']),
+            set(vcs.verbose_name for vcs in repo.tags)
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(
+            set([
+                'relativesubmodule', 'invalidsubmodule',
+                'master', 'submodule', 'newbranch',
+            ]),
+            set(vcs.verbose_name for vcs in repo.branches)
+        )
+
+        repo.checkout()
+
+        # We don't have the eliminated branches and tags in the local repo
+        self.assertEqual(
+            set(['v01']),
+            set(vcs.verbose_name for vcs in repo.tags)
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(
+            set([
+                'relativesubmodule', 'invalidsubmodule',
+                'master', 'submodule'
+            ]),
+            set(vcs.verbose_name for vcs in repo.branches)
+        )
+
 
 class TestHgBackend(RTDTestCase):
     def setUp(self):
diff --git a/readthedocs/vcs_support/backends/git.py b/readthedocs/vcs_support/backends/git.py
index 9b117799fb3..2959add5493 100644
--- a/readthedocs/vcs_support/backends/git.py
+++ b/readthedocs/vcs_support/backends/git.py
@@ -122,7 +122,9 @@ def validate_submodules(self, config):
         return True, submodules.keys()
 
     def fetch(self):
-        code, _, _ = self.run('git', 'fetch', '--tags', '--prune')
+        code, _, _ = self.run(
+            'git', 'fetch', '--tags', '--prune', '--prune-tags',
+        )
         if code != 0:
             raise RepositoryError