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

Question

1. I create a new project in IntelliJ IDEA

2. Via the menu, I go to VCS -> Import into Version Control -> Share project on GitHub

3. Enter a new repository name and click Share

4. It authenticates with GitHub ok

5. When I try to push to GitHub, a login window opens that says "Login to https://github.com/myemail@gmail.com/GitHubTest2.git "

6. 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 (ie myemail@gmail.com) and my GitHub.com password.

7. 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?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

1. See Git push requires username and password .

2. 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.