Whenever I want to push any change from my local to my github via terminal, showing "Remote: Invalid username or password." I deleted my personal token from the github and reinstalled the git in my system. But not working.

[nitinsreevstv]

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[davevad93]

Hi @nitinsreevstv ,

First of all, check your git credentials by running git config --list, make sure you have set an username
(git config --global user.name "yourusername") and that the email matches your GitHub account email address, if it doesn't match run
git config --global user.email "your@email.com", (being "your@email.com" your actual GitHub email).

Then, if you haven't already done so, regenerate the Personal Access Token to use as a password when performing git operations such as git clone or git push with HTTPS, remember to check the repo scopes so it has the permissions to access your repos and to copy the new generated token.

After doing all that, try to git clone or git push a repo using the PAT as password, if the authentication problem persists it must be some other issue then.

[esamueljsx]

These worked, thank you 🙏

had me spooked for over 30 mins

[queenofcorgis]

Thanks for posting in the GitHub Community, @nitinsreevstv !

We're happy you're here. You are more likely to get a useful response if you are posting your question in the applicable category, the Projects and Issues category is solely related to conversations around the GitHub products Issues and Projects. I've gone ahead and moved it for you. Good luck!

[nitinsreevstv]

Thank You @queenofcorgis

[vaagishwar]

It usually throws that “Invalid username or password” thing when Git is still holding on to some old credential in the background. Even if you reinstall Git or delete the token, your system’s credential manager might still be giving Git the wrong login.
Just clear the saved credentials manually (Windows Credential Manager / macOS Keychain), then set a fresh personal access token as your password when you push.
Reinstalling Git doesn’t remove those old cached logins, so Git keeps trying the same broken credentials. Clean them out and it should start behaving again.

[nitinsreevstv]

hey @davevad93, now I am providing the PAT after every push. Can you please tell me how can i overcome this problem ?

[nitinsreevstv]

Yes, I checked the repo box while generating the pat. But whenever I want to push any changes, The git again wants the PAT.

[davevad93]

Hi @nitinsreevstv , that's the standard behavior as stated in the docs, when performing git operations it asks for authentication regardless if it's HTTPS or SSH; with HTTPS you have to enter the PAT as password. If you want to avoid this, you can cache your GitHub credentials by using Git Credential Manager to store your PAT or change the remote origin like this:

git remote set-url origin https://<TOKEN>@github.com/<REPO-OWNER-USERNAME>/<REPO-NAME>

[nitinsreevstv]

Hey @davevad93, thank you for the information. I have a question, let suppose I set the remote URL and after that if I delete my PAT from GitHub, what will be the behavior ?

[davevad93]

Hey @nitinsreevstv you're welcome, if you configure the remote URL and then delete the PAT associated with it, you would get an error because the token no longer exists, in which case you would have to generate a new one and set the remote URL with the new token.

[nitinsreevstv]

Thank You so much @davevad93. You are great.

[davevad93]

You're welcome @nitinsreevstv , have a nice day!

[andry81]

I have the same issue and regeneration of the token didn't help.

I've found that removement of the credential.helper=wincred does work. But after I have to type the username and password each time when I am pushing.

If try to set the variable again and it continues with the error:

remote: Invalid username or password.
fatal: Authentication failed for 'https://github.com/USER/REPO/'

Everything was working several days before.

[andry81]

I have the same issue and regeneration of the token didn't help.

I have installed this: https://github.com/git-ecosystem/git-credential-manager/releases/download/v2.5.1/gcm-win-x86-2.5.1.exe

And it started to work without change the credential.helper. Then I did uninstall the manager and it keeps working.

I didn't commit yet anything new, but a plain empty push does not ask the credentials anymore.

The support could not answer why. But I suspect the installer or the manager did reset something in the wincred functionality.

[andry81]

Everything was working several days before.

I've located the reason. The GitHub now requires 2 credentials instead of one as was before for https://github.com/USER/REPO remotes:

1. Address: git:https://github.com
   User: USER
   Pass: PASS
   Persistence: Enterprise

AND

2. Address: git:https://USER@github.com
   User: USER
   Pass: PASS
   Persistence: Local computer

The second one must be with persistence Local computer, otherwise won't work (!).

This one can not be added through the Control Panel Credential Manager nor cmdkey.exe utility.
The details how to add through the PowerShell: https://serverfault.com/questions/920048/change-persistence-type-of-windows-credentials-from-enterprise-to-local-compu

The Git Credential Manager adds the second automatically in the installation.

So the GitHub has changed the credentials escalation for all users and didn't even notified them. 😒

[andry81]

I've dig more further and seems the root of cause is the Git itself. It somehow does use a different wincred address if it is beginning by https://github.com/USER-.

To repro:

1. Remove git:https://USER@github.com.
   Seems the Git has priority over it and uses it at first, so the bug is hidden behind this address.

2. Add any address beginning by git:https://github.com/USER-:
   Address: git:https://github.com/USER-any/any
   User: any
   Pass: any

Run git push command in the working copy of any public repo, for example, cloned from the remote address: git:https://github.com/USER/REPO

Response:

remote: Support for password authentication was removed on August 13, 2021.
remote: Please see https://docs.github.com/get-started/getting-started-with-git/about-remote-repositories#cloning-with-https-urls for information on currently recommended modes of authentication.
fatal: Authentication failed for 'https://github.com/USER/REPO/'

If add a fake PAT password:

Address: git:https://github.com/USER-any/any
User: any
Pass: ghp_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Response:

remote: Invalid username or password.
fatal: Authentication failed for 'https://github.com/USER/REPO/'

[andry81]

But seems now the GitHub changed the behavior and git push somehow remotely clones git:https://USER@github.com from git:https://github.com with respective persistence. It didn't work this way before.

[fizasayyed]

Temporary Fix (If All Else Fails)
If you're still getting Authentication failed errors with HTTPS, try embedding your Personal Access Token (PAT) directly in the remote URL (⚠️ only for testing, not secure for long-term use):

git remote set-url origin https://USERNAME:YOUR_PAT@github.com/username/repo.git

[lukakeso]

I found a solution here, it works great for HTTPS and SSH:

https://dev.to/nutan_mishra_95d0a3808a4d/fixing-github-authentication-error-erase-operation-not-supported-and-invalid-username-or-token-47jp#:~:text=GitHub%20no%20longer%20allows%20password,invalid%20username%20or%20token%22%20error.