content/get-started/using-git/dealing-with-non-fast-forward-errors.md

metadata

title: Dealing with non-fast-forward errors
intro: >-
  Sometimes, Git can't make your change to a remote repository without losing
  commits. When this happens, your push is refused.
redirect_from:
  - /articles/dealing-with-non-fast-forward-errors
  - /github/using-git/dealing-with-non-fast-forward-errors
  - /github/getting-started-with-github/dealing-with-non-fast-forward-errors
  - >-
    /github/getting-started-with-github/using-git/dealing-with-non-fast-forward-errors
versions:
  fpt: '*'
  ghes: '*'
  ghec: '*'
shortTitle: Non-fast-forward error

If another person has pushed to the same branch as you, Git won't be able to push your changes:

$ git push origin main
> To https://{% data variables.product.product_url %}/USERNAME/REPOSITORY.git
>  ! [rejected]        main -> main (non-fast-forward)
> error: failed to push some refs to 'https://{% data variables.product.product_url %}/USERNAME/REPOSITORY.git'
> To prevent you from losing history, non-fast-forward updates were rejected
> Merge the remote changes (e.g. 'git pull') before pushing again. See the
> 'Note about fast-forwards' section of 'git push --help' for details.

You can fix this by fetching and merging the changes made on the remote branch with the changes that you have made locally:

$ git fetch origin
# Fetches updates made to an online repository
$ git merge origin YOUR_BRANCH_NAME
# Merges updates made online with your local work

Or, you can simply use git pull to perform both commands at once:

$ git pull origin YOUR_BRANCH_NAME
# Grabs online updates and merges them with your local work