When working with Git, you might encounter the error message: “failed to push some refs to remote.” This error typically occurs when your local repository is out of sync with the remote repository. This article will guide you through the steps to resolve this issue and successfully push your changes to the remote repository.

Common Causes of the Error

• Non-fast-forward updates: This happens when the local branch is behind the remote branch, and Git cannot perform a fast-forward merge.
• Branch Protection Rules: Some branches might have protection rules that prevent force-pushing or require certain checks before accepting new commits.
• Conflicting Changes: There might be conflicting changes between your local commits and the remote commits.

The error message typically looks like this:

‘failed to push some refs to remote’

Steps to Fix the Error

Step 1: Fetch the Latest Changes from the Remote

First, ensure that your local repository is up to date with the remote repository. Run the following command to fetch the latest changes:

git fetch origin

This command fetches all the changes from the remote repository without merging them into your local branches.

Step 2: Merge the Remote Changes into Your Local Branch

Next, merge the changes from the remote branch into your local branch. This can be done with the following command:

git merge origin/<branch-name>

Replace <branch-name> with the name of the branch you are working on. This will merge the remote changes into your local branch and may result in conflicts that need to be resolved.

Step 3: Resolve Any Merge Conflicts

If there are any merge conflicts, Git will notify you. You need to resolve these conflicts manually. Open the files with conflicts, make the necessary changes, and then mark them as resolved using:

git add <file-name>

After resolving all conflicts, complete the merge with:

git commit

Step 4: Push Your Changes to the Remote Repository

Once your local branch is up to date with the remote branch and all conflicts are resolved, you can push your changes using:

git push origin <branch-name>

Replace <branch-name> with the name of your branch. This should successfully push your changes to the remote repository.

Example

Let’s walk through an example scenario to illustrate these steps:

Step 1: Attempt to push changes

git push origin main

Error message:

error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/example/repo.git'
hint: Updates were rejected because the remote contains work that you do
hint: not have locally. This is usually caused by another repository pushing
hint: to the same ref. You may want to first integrate the remote changes
hint: (e.g., 'git pull ...') before pushing again.
hint: See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details.

Step 2: Fetch the latest changes from the remote

git fetch origin

Step 3: Merge the remote changes into your local branch

git merge origin/main

Step 4: Resolve any merge conflicts if necessary.

Step 5: Push your changes to the remote repository:

git push origin main

‘failed to push some refs to remote