add a troubleshooting note about branch checkout

docs/development/releasing.md

@@ -15,6 +15,11 @@ minor, patch, or beta version change. Read the
 [Version Change Rules](../tutorial/electron-versioning.md#version-change-rules)
 for more information.
 
+**NB:** If releasing from a branch, e.g. 1-8-x, check out the branch with
+`git checkout 1-8-x` rather than `git checkout -b remotes/origin/1-8-x`.
+The scrips need `git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD` to return a short name,
+e.g. no `remotes/origin/`
+
 ## Set your tokens and environment variables
 The Electron S3 Bucket in LastPass has environment variables needed for the
 release process. If you don't have access to this, make a request similar to