'403 Forbidden' error message when you try to push to a GitHub repository

This article discusses a problem that may occur when you try to push to a remote GitHub repository using HTTPS from an A2 Hosting server.

Problem

When you try to push changes to a GitHub repository from an A2 Hosting server using an HTTPS URL, you receive the following error message:

error: The requested URL returned error: 403 Forbidden while accessing https://github.com/github-username/github-repository-name.git/info/refs

Cause

There are a few possible causes for this problem:

• You typed an incorrect password. Make sure you are using the correct GitHub password for the account.
• The Git client on the A2 Hosting server requires a modified HTTPS URL to work correctly. If this is the cause, the password prompt does not even appear when you try to do a push operation.

Resolution

If you are sure you are using the correct GitHub password, there are two ways to resolve the “403 Forbidden” problem:

Method #1: Use SSH

Instead of using HTTPS URLs to push changes to GitHub, you can use SSH instead. For information about how to do this, please visit https://help.github.com/articles/changing-a-remote-s-url.

Method #2: Modify the HTTPS URL

Some A2 Hosting managed servers have an old version of the Git client installed. To push changes to GitHub using this older client version, you must include your GitHub username in the HTTPS URL.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your A2 Hosting account using SSH.
2. At the command prompt, change to the directory where the Git repository is located.
3. Type the following command:

   git config -l | grep url

   You should see output that resembles the following:

   remote.origin.url=https://github.com/github-username/github-repository-name.git

4. You need to add your GitHub username to the github.com portion of the URL. To do this, type the following command, replacing the values in red with your own account information:
   

   git remote set-url origin "https://github-username@github.com/github-username/github-repository-name.git"
   

5. To verify the new remote URL setting, type the following command:
   

   git config -l | grep url
   

   Now when you try to push changes to the GitHub repository, you are prompted for a password, and the push operation should succeed.