The git “error: failed to Push some refs to remote repo” occurs when you try to push your local committed code to a remote repo with git push or git push -u origin main. The reason may be based on many issues related to the connection between the local branch and the remote branch and I will tell you a few. Before you can push to any remote GitHub repo, you have to make sure that there’s a connection between the remote and the local repo. It will be time saving if you do set an upstream for every branch so that you will just pull and push as you make changes to your code.

If you don’t have the required permissions, you will also not be able to push your source-code to a remote repo. This may due to the fact that you don’t own or you’re not part of the repo team/contributors. If that’s the case then what you need to do is to raise a pull request if you have already forked the repository. But if you do own the repo then it could mean that you have wrong configuration setup on your local environment.

If you’re presented with the bug failed to push some refs to remote error while pushing code to git, it could be that you did not commit your changes before pushing. Errors such as incorrect branch name, error: src refspec main does not match any and pre-receive hook declined are all related to the fact that your local repository not being in sync with the remote repo.

Also, when the remote origin is ahead of your local repo on your machine, you will not be able to push some refs to the remote repo. This may due to the fact that many contributors/team members working on the same branch. If other contributors push their changes, you have to pull and merge first before you can push so that your source code will match that of your team members. This implementation from the Git team is not really a bug but a hint to notify you that the remote origin has some file changes you do not have and it helps to avoid overlapping (meaning your local rep needs to be updated first so that you don’t override changes made by other team members.)

Below is how the error is presented…

$ git push origin main
Username for 'https://github.com': user_test
Password for 'https://[email protected]':
To https://github.com/justice1891/testpullpush.git
 ![rejected] main -> main (non-fast-forward)
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/ justice1891/testpullpush.git'

How to Fix the error: failed to push some refs to Error in Git. There are several ways you can fix the above error, but let take it step-by-step.

You can use the git command git pull origin [branch] or git pull --rebase origin [branch] to fix the error: failed to push some refs to [remote repo] error. After executing the above command, the error will be resolved and you should be able to push. Let me show you how to use the command.

What the command will do is that, it will send a pull request to the remote repo and fetch the new changes and merge it with your local repo. That’s how git ensures that both the local branch and the remote origin matches, and that means you can push your changes to GitHub after merging is done successfully. In our case, we have an error so let try to send a pull request first (you can do this on your terminal if you have Git already configured, or move to your local repo directory and use Git-Bash instead)

git pull origin main

Note that in the above code, we’re sending a pull request to fetch the changes from the main branch. If you have a different branch name like master, then replace main with that branch name. If the request didn’t succeed when you execute the above command whiles syncing your local and remote repo, make sure you have git properly configured on your system or check and see if there is a connection between the repos. Then you can go ahead and push your changes using below command:

git push -u origin main 

You should be able to push your code to the remote repo without encountering any bug. But if the error persists seek of other reasons and you’re presented with an error saying ‘fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories’ then apply below solution to get it fixed.

How to fix the error “error: failed to push some refs” in Git Using git pull –rebase? If you have different number of commits in your local-branch it will be behind the remote branch and the first solution will not work for this situation. You can proceed and fix the error using the git pull –rebase command.

git pull --rebase origin main
git push -u origin main 

If you’re presented with the response Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/main on the terminal after running the first command above, then the pull is successful. Both the local and the remote repo will be sync and rebase to have the same state and code or file changes with your local branch having one commit ahead the remote origin. That means you have to run the second command above to push your local commit, and this will push it state to the remote repo.

The next solution is to rename your branch and push again if you’re able to pull but cannot push to a remote repo. Sometimes because of other related reasons, git suggest that you rename your branch before you push, if your branch name contains hyphens and other special characters. Example, if your local branch name includes hyphens, replace it with underscore with git branch -m new_branch_name before you push.

git branch -m new_branch_name
git push -u new_branch_name

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Another reason that leads to the occurrence of the above error is when you add new changes with the command git add --all and you decide to push with git push without committing the changes. Git treat every commit as a separate version of your code or files in a branch so that you can switch back and forward and modify that commit separately. Make sure to commit all your code changes before you push, if not you will be presented with message saying “Everything up-to-date” meanwhile the actual files you just added needs to be pushed to the remote origin. Below is an example of such bug and how to solve it…

 git add –all
 git push

You can see it says ‘Everything up-to-date’ meanwhile I was trying to push the changes I just added to the branch. If I run git status it will then list all the file changes, I just added waiting to be committed.

The point here is that, git will not push the changes you just added to the remote origin unless you commit first.

git add –-all 
git commit -m “first commit”
git push

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Summary

You have seen why the git error: failed to push some refs to [remote repo] occurs and how to resolve it with commands like git pull --rebase origin [branch], git pull origin [branch] and git push -u origin main. Please note carefully the underline reasons for the occurrence of the above error. It mainly because, you have to pull some changes from GitHub to your local repository before you can push. The error will be thrown if you don’t pull first and you attempt to push (git will not allow you to do that.)

Let me know if you did encounter any difficulties whiles applying any of the above solutions.

Keep coding!