"fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories" after adding a Git remote

Question

I've added a remote repository to the folder where I am working with:

git remote add origin https://github.com/<username>/<repo>.git

If I type:

git pull origin master

I get:

From https://github.com/<username>/<repo>
    * branch            master     -> FETCH_HEAD
fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories

I have also tried:

git pull origin master --allow-unrelated-histories

But I get:

From https://github.com/...
    * branch            master     -> FETCH_HEAD
error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by merge:
    <files>
Please commit your changes or stash them before you merge.
Aborting

About the second error: stackoverflow.com/questions/35450049/… — max630
– max630, Commented May 1, 2018 at 3:57
technically yes because it didn't find the repository that I was working . SO i typed this : ``` git remote add origin github.co/username/xxxxx.git ``` — ramab01
– ramab01, Commented May 1, 2018 at 4:28
Possible duplicate of What does "would be overwritten by merge" mean? — phd
– phd, Commented May 1, 2018 at 14:36
git pull origin master --allow-unrelated-histories .See here stackoverflow.com/questions/37937984/… — Bhargav Variya
– Bhargav Variya, Commented Mar 20, 2021 at 6:48

Fernando Espinosa · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-01 04:32:35Z

54

You need to either reset or commit your changes first:

git reset --hard

or:

git commit -m "saving changes..."

Then you can do:

git pull origin master --allow-unrelated-histories

answered May 1, 2018 at 4:32

Fernando Espinosa

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2 Comments

Cláudio Over a year ago

I had the same problem and the command below solved it. git pull origin master --allow-unrelated-histories I created a github repo (with one default file commited) and after that I created a local repository. So, the repos (remote and local) started independently and with different contents. That´s why --allow-unrelated-histories is necessary. IMHO, this issues must be closed.

Ced Over a year ago

I have an annoying fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories

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