Historical contributions disappeared after removing and re-adding my email address — commits are still attributed to my account

[lattewei]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Profile

Body

Hello,

I'm trying to understand why hundreds of my historical GitHub contributions disappeared from my profile after I removed an email address from my account and later added it back.
What happened

Before this issue, my GitHub contribution graph showed approximately 400 contributions. After I removed an email address that had been used for my commits, the number dropped to around 30.

I subsequently added the email address back to my GitHub account. I waited several days, but my historical contributions did not return. I also made a new test commit, which appeared correctly in my contribution graph.

This suggests that GitHub can count new contributions correctly, while my historical contribution data remains incomplete.

I contacted GitHub Support, but my ticket was automatically closed without resolving the issue.
What I investigated

I exported my accessible repository and commit history using the GitHub API and compared it with the contribution calendar returned by GitHub.

The export, generated on October 30, 2026, contains:

362 unique repository/commit pairs across 17 repositories.

355 commits whose GitHub API author is associated with my account, lattewei.

A contribution calendar showing only 41 contributions over the reported 365-day period.

No errors while scanning the accessible branches.

I understand that the number of commits is not necessarily equal to the number of contributions GitHub counts. However, I found repeated discrepancies involving commits in public repositories, on their default branches, which are still associated with my account.
Specific examples

October 15, 2026

The contribution calendar reports 0 contributions, but my exported history contains 16 commits associated with lattewei on that date.

For example:

walls — commit 2a4c182c7d2d30c40fd483a38e04f5efc91f62dc
https://github.com/lattewei/walls/commit/2a4c182c7d2d30c40fd483a38e04f5efc91f62dc

lattewei.github.io — commit 424b55fbd67a5793e5753f6e802fb144388a9610
https://github.com/lattewei/lattewei.github.io/commit/424b55fbd67a5793e5753f6e802fb144388a9610

Both commits use ltcrr@tutamail.com as the author email, and the API associates their authors with lattewei.

October 19, 2026

The contribution calendar reports 0 contributions, while the export contains 8 commits associated with my account.

One example is:

walls — commit 76c58ca02db1bb70ed441f6ea38790834f4bd985
https://github.com/lattewei/walls/commit/76c58ca02db1bb70ed441f6ea38790834f4bd985

October 23, 2026

The contribution calendar again reports 0 contributions, while the export contains 11 commits associated with my account.

For example:

walls — commit ab98e7b8c6eef2a5547a3f35a8e7c459e456559c
https://github.com/lattewei/walls/commit/ab98e7b8c6eef2a5547a3f35a8e7c459e456559c

October 24, 2026

The contribution calendar reports 0 contributions, while the export contains 9 commits associated with my account.

For example:

walls — commit 24c23c1623f66bbdd19a1f422564fd9419685b7e
https://github.com/lattewei/walls/commit/24c23c1623f66bbdd19a1f422564fd9419685b7e

These are not isolated discrepancies on a single day.
What I have already tried

Re-added the email address to my GitHub account.

Waited several days for the contribution graph to update.

Created a new test commit, which was counted correctly.

Contacted GitHub Support, but my ticket was automatically closed.

Checked the commit history through the GitHub API.

I am not asking how to configure my Git email for future commits. My concern is specifically about historical contributions that were previously displayed on my profile and disappeared after the email address was removed.
My questions

Is there a way to trigger a recalculation or rebuild of historical contribution data for an account?

Can GitHub's commit attribution API correctly associate a commit with an account while the contribution calendar still fails to count it, and if so, how can I determine the reason?

Is there an account-level issue or a known bug that can cause historical contributions to disappear after an email address is removed and re-added?

Has anyone experienced the same issue and successfully restored their historical contribution graph?

I understand that commits appearing in an API export do not automatically qualify as profile contributions. However, these commits were previously reflected in my graph, and I would like to understand why that historical data has not been restored.

I can provide the full JSON export used for this investigation if needed.

Thank you.

[github-actions[bot]]

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[Sagargupta16]

There is nothing left to change on your side; the graph needs a rebuild that only GitHub Support can run. Your commits qualify on every documented point. lattewei/walls is public and not a fork, all 100 commits on main carry ltcrr@tutamail.com and the API resolves that author to your account. Yet the contributions API counts exactly 8 commits for walls this month, all dated 2026-10-30, and zero for lattewei/lattewei and lattewei.github.io. Everything authored under that address before today is simply not indexed, which is the state the docs say re-adding the address should have fixed: "Your contributions graph will be rebuilt automatically when you add the new address" (https://docs.github.com/en/account-and-profile/how-tos/contribution-settings/troubleshooting-missing-contributions).

The same page gives the next step when the rebuild does not happen: confirm the author email with the .patch view, "then contact GitHub Support with that information". It also says Support "may be able to rebuild your contribution data", so the rebuild is a known operation, not a feature request.

Open the ticket again, under Account rather than a general question, since account issues are the category Free plans can file. Keep it to the facts the agent needs: the address, the dates you removed and re-added it, two or three .patch links such as https://github.com/lattewei/walls/commit/2a4c182c7d2d30c40fd483a38e04f5efc91f62dc.patch, the two docs sentences above, and the request to rebuild your contribution data. Allow 24 hours after they confirm.