Troubleshooting — Stage 8: Push to GitHub

Common Errors

fatal: Authentication failed

Cause: You typed your GitHub account password instead of a personal access token.

Fix: Create a PAT as described in the walkthrough and use it as the password. On macOS, you can store it in Keychain so you only enter it once.

error: failed to push some refs ... Updates were rejected because the remote contains work that you do not have locally

Cause: The GitHub repo is not empty. Usually because you checked "Add README" when creating the repo.

Fix: Easiest path — delete the GitHub repo and recreate it empty. Or pull first: git pull origin main --allow-unrelated-histories, resolve the merge, then push.

fatal: The current branch main has no upstream branch

Cause: You ran git push without -u origin main the first time, and tracking was never set up.

Fix: Run git push -u origin main once. After that, git push alone will work.

Repository not found

Cause: Typo in the remote URL, or the repo is private and you are not authenticated as the owner.

Fix: Run git remote -v to see the URL. Compare it character by character with the URL on your GitHub page. Use git remote set-url origin <correct-url> to fix.

FAQ

Is pushing the same as committing?

No. Committing saves a version locally. Pushing uploads those local commits to a remote. You can commit many times and push all of them at once.

Can I push other branches?

Yes. Every branch can be pushed independently: git push -u origin dark-theme, for example. Each branch gets its own upstream the first time you push with -u.

Does pushing send my entire project every time?

No. Git only sends the commits the remote does not have yet. After the first push, subsequent pushes are tiny — just the new commits.

Can I see the webpage live on the internet?

Yes — but GitHub does not serve HTML files as a website automatically. You would need to enable GitHub Pages in the repo settings. That is outside this tutorial, but it is a nice follow-up: Settings → Pages → Source: main branch.