IntelliJ IDEA GitHub integration creates the repository, but gets "couldn't authorize" error trying to push

Question

I create a new project in IntelliJ IDEA
Via the menu, I go to VCS -> Import into Version Control -> Share project on GitHub
Enter a new repository name and click Share
It authenticates with GitHub ok
When I try to push to GitHub, a login window opens that says "Login to https://github.com/myemail@gmail.com/GitHubTest2.git"
The default login is github.com/my_username. I try to login with that login and my GitHub.com password and authentication fails. I also try to login with my GitHub.com login (i.e. myemail@gmail.com) and my GitHub.com password.
After 3 tries, I get the following error message:

Push to GitHub failed Push authorization failure: Couldn't authorize

Why does it authenticate with GitHub with my GitHub.com login/password but not when it tries to push the project to GitHub?

Try now. Github had a massive service interruption today and only recently has restored services. — Brian Roach, Dec 23 '12 at 05:32
I saw that, but it's not the issue. I was having this problem before and still have it now. — roark, Dec 24 '12 at 02:13

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 09 '13 at 10:41

8

The following worked for me:

Instead of using username and password use a personal access token. In GitHub: Go to "Account settings" > "Applications" and generate a "Personal Access Token"

In IntelliJ:

Go to "Settings" > "Version control" > "GitHub" and enter your login and the generated access token. Now pushing to the GitHub repo should work.

answered Sep 09 '13 at 10:41

Philipp

538
6
14

Didn't work with IU 129.713. I'm using ssh access. Intellij confirms that my credential (name, access token) works. Did I need to checkout the github repo using https? git push on command line (bash, ubuntu) works. – mcarifio Sep 22 '13 at 00:35
Pilot error on my part. Setting the IDE to use the native ssh allows it to work. – mcarifio Sep 22 '13 at 01:39
using the token was the only way I could get this to work! – leeor Oct 13 '15 at 02:06

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:44

See Git push requires username and password .
Try to use ssh instead of https ( with the generated keypair: https://help.github.com/articles/generating-ssh-keys ).

This may solve the issue for you, for me it just changed the error message I was seeing in IntelliJ from GitHub to "remote host hung up unexpectedly."

I then tried pushing to GitHub from terminal and it worked. From terminal, it works regardless of whether I use SSH or https. I therefore suggest using command line git for pushing code to GitHub instead of the IntelliJ integration.

IntelliJ IDEA GitHub integration creates the repository, but gets "couldn't authorize" error trying to push

2 Answers2