remote: Write access to repository not granted. fatal: unable to access

Question

I have the error message:

remote: Write access to repository not granted.
fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/...../...../': 
The requested URL returned error: 403

My friend invited me to his repository, and I used his personal token while cloning it.
But it says the above error.

I also tried with my own token but it says the same.

I also faced this when I created my own repository and was making initial commit and push.
This issue has grown ever since Git*Hub has brought token authentication into account.

How can I get past this?

Does creating a token worked, as mentioned below? – VonC Jan 09 '22 at 12:23 — VonC, Jan 09 '22 at 12:23

VonC · Answer 1 · 2022-12-15T16:10:14.873

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Try and recreate a PAT(Personal Access Token) with, as scope, the repo ones.
And, for testing, chose an expiration date "No Expiration", to be sure it remains valid.
(Note: Since Oct. 2022, you now have fine-grained personal access tokens, which must have expiration date.)
(gdvalderrama adds in the comments: The max expiration date is 1 year and has to be manually set)

That token should start with ghp_...: it should then authenticate you properly, allowing you to clone the repository, and push back to it.

Note: a token is akin to a password (but can easily be revoked/regenerated), so you should not use any other tokens but your own.

edited Dec 15 '22 at 16:10

answered Jan 03 '22 at 05:41

VonC

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I tried multiple access tokens and they wouldn't work, then I finally decided to set the main "repo" scope and it finally worked. So thanks. – nonzaprej Oct 21 '22 at 13:45
Using expiration date "never" is not really possible, last time I did this. – Sybille Peters Dec 08 '22 at 15:12
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@SybillePeters True, this is called "No Expiration" now. Only for "classic" token. Fine-grained tokens *must* have expiration date. I have updated the answer accordingly. – VonC Dec 08 '22 at 15:41
The max expiration date is 1 year and has to be manually set – gdvalderrama Dec 15 '22 at 15:58
@gdvalderrama Thank you for your feedback. I have included your comment in the answer for more visibility. – VonC Dec 15 '22 at 16:10

score 31 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 16 '22 at 07:56

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when you create your access token
In expiration: it should say No expiration.
In selecte scopes you mark the repo radio button.
As shown in the image below

answered Feb 16 '22 at 07:56

Elie Eid

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score 29 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 15 '22 at 10:00

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I had same error , when gived persmission on github it worked

answered Jul 15 '22 at 10:00

Halim Bezek

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It would be helpful if you actually said in the comment how you can edit these permissions. – Ehsan88 Jul 20 '22 at 10:21
Yes, I have also the same question. I tried to find it on github, but did not see this option. – bim Jul 21 '22 at 08:49
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This is located in Actions -> General. However mine were already set and I still have the error – Pietro Coelho Jul 26 '22 at 20:27
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select a project goto Settings > Actions > General , can find there "Workflow permissions" – Halim Bezek Jan 23 '23 at 11:14
Omg, this finally solved it for me! Thanks so much – Timo Ernst Mar 15 '23 at 08:26
This did it for me! – Maxime Dupré Apr 20 '23 at 18:05
It's well for me. – Ven Shine May 25 '23 at 04:28

score 12 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 21 '22 at 11:25

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In my case, I've used fine granted PAT, with all permissions, but somehow it doesn't work. After changing to the classic token, 403 disappears.

answered Nov 21 '22 at 11:25

danPyk

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This worked for me after lot tries!! – Amresh Nov 24 '22 at 13:01
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I've done the same, granted my fine-grained token all permissions possible, and I can't even do a git clone. But after trying further, it seems organisations that I created fail to clone, but direct repositories under my account are cloned successfully. – OthmanEmpire Apr 26 '23 at 12:08
@OthmanEmpire have you found a solution? I'm having the same problem, personal repos work but organization repos don't, even though the org is owned by me – Anthony May 15 '23 at 16:34
No, I am of the view that this is not possible with the current implementation of fine-grained tokens that Github offers, they are after all still in beta. I've resorted to sticking to classic tokens. Otherwise, the other solution is to create a new dedicated Github account that contains the new organisation, and make that issue the fine-grained tokens. Not too elegant but common solution for other software/products. – OthmanEmpire May 16 '23 at 20:25

Dilanka Fernando · Answer 5 · 2022-02-24T12:14:16.983

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Go to your local repository folder and find a hidden folder called ".git". find a file called "config" in the folder as attached below.

You need to change the url = https://github.com/... to SSH url that can find from GitHub repository(on git hub Web portal) cone menu as below picture.

This is what the config file looks like, after the change of the url.

This solved my issue. I belive this will help.

edited Feb 24 '22 at 12:14

answered Feb 24 '22 at 12:08

Dilanka Fernando

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this did not work for me. – bim Jul 21 '22 at 08:51
On Windows, I ended up on this well known issue: [git clone pull continually freezing](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33240137/git-clone-pull-continually-freezing-at-store-key-in-cache) (find a solution there) – PythoNic Aug 12 '22 at 23:03
this works only if you have an ssh key associated with your github account – apr_dev Oct 09 '22 at 22:23

score 11 · Answer 6 · edited Jul 20 '23 at 13:35

This is how I solved, step by step

Click on your Profile Icon (top-right on Github website)
Settings
Developer settings (bottom-left)
Personal access tokens
fine-grained tokens
"Generate new token"
Write a Token name
Pick an expiration date from the menu or a custom one
Repository access> All repositories
Open "Repository permissions" menu
Look for the "Contents" row
From the menu at right select "Access> Read and Write"
"Generate token" (bottom-left)

score 11 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 02 '23 at 10:02

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Had the same error with a workflow that I've had already used in the past without any problem. Turns out that, in new repositories, workflows only have the Read permission. You need to enable the Read and write permissions in the repository settings.

Go to Settings > Actions > General > Workflow permissions and choose Read and write permissions.

answered Apr 02 '23 at 10:02

Skyost

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As a note, you DO NOT need to enable the "Allow Github Actions to create and approve pull requests" checkbox. – Sethu Senthil May 24 '23 at 22:43

Sardorek Aminjonov · Answer 8 · 2022-03-01T20:47:43.517

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You need to get a write access from for the repo. Try asking your friend to give that. I solved it this way

edited Mar 01 '22 at 20:47

answered Jan 11 '22 at 19:51

Sardorek Aminjonov

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That doesn't explain why you need write access just to clone a repository – Keto Dec 12 '22 at 20:00

score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 14 '22 at 21:13

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You can resolve it by setting origin URL with your personal access token

Open the terminal

git remote set-url origin https://{your-personal-token}@github.com/{organization}/{repo-name}.git

git push

answered Oct 14 '22 at 21:13

Dave Lee

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score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 23 '22 at 11:19

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For Fine-grained PAT After adding these access, I am able to pull and push into my repository.

answered Dec 23 '22 at 11:19

Parameswaran N

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Thanks! I was afraid of being forced to read the entire (and always HUGE and useless) Microsoft documentation to understand such a simple thing. – Julio S. Aug 16 '23 at 14:32

Rohim Chou · Answer 11 · 2023-07-06T05:09:21.843

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I am trying to git clone a repo under another organization (owned by me too) through git bash by input username & fine-grained personal access tokens manually.

It took me a while to realize I have to select the resource owner to that organization when generating new fine-grained personal access tokens:

To have commit/push rights, also remember to grant Contents read-write permission:

edited Jul 06 '23 at 05:09

answered Jul 02 '23 at 11:58

Rohim Chou

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Note that this feature has to be enabled for the organization: https://docs.github.com/en/organizations/managing-programmatic-access-to-your-organization/setting-a-personal-access-token-policy-for-your-organization – Cyrill Aug 02 '23 at 12:20

score 1 · Answer 12 · edited Sep 07 '22 at 00:31

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I gave below permissions on the GitHub and it worked.

Permissions

edited Sep 07 '22 at 00:31

Jeremy Caney

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answered Sep 02 '22 at 06:44

Shashikant Chattar

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Dec 14 '22 at 16:18

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Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens
Click "Generate new token"
Input token description e.g. "Sourcetree Mac Token", select "repo" checkbox, and click "Generate token"
Copy the generated token
Add your GitHub account to Sourcetree, but now rather than using OAuth, select Basic authentication
Input your username
Paste the generated token as password, Generate Key, and Save

answered Dec 14 '22 at 16:18

JTL

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worked for me on Mac M1!! – eduardomarr Jan 24 '23 at 14:01

score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Mar 16 '23 at 15:50

One possibility is that the error message is misleading. I've seen this message appear when I forgot to add "Contents/read" access to the fine-grained personal access token. After adding the "read-only" permission, I was able to successfully clone the repository, even when the token has no write access.

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Nov 06 '22 at 07:52

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Your friend as generate a Fine-grained personal access tokens and make sure you gives you permissions to the repo and user.

answered Nov 06 '22 at 07:52

francis chiputa

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As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Nov 09 '22 at 09:37
I guess this means that the owner of the repository has to provide a fine-grained token to any collaborators but when using a classic token, that is not needed, it works just with `repo` scope selected. – rexxar Feb 06 '23 at 17:33

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Dec 28 '22 at 16:23

When you create (Personal access tokens) select under Permissions -> Repository ->permissions (select all read-write fields where possible) , do the same for (Account permissions ) then you will have all access and such an error should not occur. At least in my case, it helped, since all the answers in this article did not work for me.

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Feb 14 '23 at 13:40

Create a fine-grained "personal access token" with correct code writing permissions: https://github.com/settings/tokens?type=beta
Adjust the remote url:

git remote set-url origin https://{username}@github.com/{username}/{repo-name}.git

Use the personal token as password

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Mar 15 '23 at 18:25

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I Used Classic Token and pasted it in the password area in terminal. It Worked. If Your fine grain Tokens fails to work then try classic token and select the repo radio area like this one https://stackoverflow.com/a/71138077/17359554

answered Mar 15 '23 at 18:25

Abid Ibn Azam

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score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Apr 09 '23 at 18:32

For anyone who gets here in the future, after trying a few of the above solution and things still dont work. When creating a PAT:

Repository access -> Only select repositories -> Give access to both main repo and submodule repo.
Permissions -> Repository permissions -> Give Read-only access to Contents and Metadata.

score 0 · Answer 20 · answered May 16 '23 at 08:18

My GitHub Actions configuration contains instructions for fetching code with the custom bot's SSH key:

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
  with:
    ssh-key: ${{ secrets.BOT_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}
    submodules: true

The same key will probably be used for pushing the code. Hence you have to give the write access to the bot.

score 0 · Answer 21 · answered Aug 10 '23 at 15:27

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I had such a problem when the repository owner gave me read-only rights

answered Aug 10 '23 at 15:27

Oleksandr Venger

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remote: Write access to repository not granted. fatal: unable to access

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