Error while pushing to GitHub - Merge required

Other Questions Github
1

I’m having trouble pushing my code to GitHub and I’m not sure why.

I am currently working on my project and when I try to upload my changes to the remote repository, I encounter the following error:

Pushing to [email protected]:myuser/myproject.git
To [email protected]:myuser/myproject.git
 ! [rejected]        main -> main (non-fast-forward)
error: failed to push some refs to '[email protected]:myuser/myproject.git'
hint: Updates were rejected because the tip of your current branch is behind
hint: its remote counterpart. Merge the remote changes (e.g. 'git pull')
hint: before pushing again.
hint: See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details.

This situation is puzzling because I haven’t previously pushed anything to this repository. Why am I prompted to merge changes from the remote when I believe nothing is present there?

2

When you created the repo on GitHub, you probably initialized it with a README or license file. That creates an initial commit on the remote that doesn’t exist locally. That’s why Git says your local branch is behind, even though you haven’t pushed anything yet. Just run git pull origin main --allow-unrelated-histories to merge the remote commits with your local changes. This flag tells Git to merge branches that don’t share history, which is exactly what you need here.

3

This happens when your local and remote repositories have diverged, which can occur even if the remote appears empty. GitHub may have automatically created files like README.md or .gitignore that haven’t been pulled to your local repo. To resolve this, execute git pull origin main to integrate any remote changes. If conflicts arise, you will need to address them manually. Alternatively, if you’re certain about overwriting the remote, you can use git push --force origin main, but proceed with caution as this will remove any existing commits in the remote repository.

4

hey, you might have some hidden files on GitHub that are blocking your push. try running git fetch then git merge origin/main to sync your changes without losing anything. good luck!