Encountering a situation where your Git push hangs when pushing to GitHub can be one of the most frustrating experiences for any developer. You’ve committed your changes, you’re ready to share your hard work, and then… nothing. Your terminal freezes, displaying no error message, just an agonizing silence. This common issue can stem from a myriad of underlying problems, ranging from simple network hiccups to complex authentication failures or even large file transfers bogging down the process. Understanding the root cause is the first step towards resolving it, allowing you to get back to seamless collaboration and deployment. This guide will walk you through the typical culprits and provide actionable steps to diagnose and fix a hanging Git push, ensuring your code reaches its GitHub destination efficiently.

Understanding Why Git Pushes Hang

A Git push that hangs, rather than failing with an explicit error, often indicates an issue where the connection is established but then stalls during data transfer or authentication. This isn’t just a minor inconvenience; it can severely disrupt development workflows, especially in team environments where timely code integration is crucial. Developers might see their command line output freeze after typing git push, with no progress updates, leading to confusion and wasted time.

The “hang” typically manifests as a prolonged period of inactivity. It’s not a quick “permission denied” or “repository not found” error. Instead, Git might initiate the connection, start sending data, and then simply stop, waiting for a response that never arrives or processing a task that takes an unexpectedly long time. This can be particularly misleading because the initial handshake might succeed, giving a false sense of security before the operation eventually times out or needs to be manually interrupted.

According to a survey by Stack Overflow, network issues and misconfigured authentication are among the top reasons developers face connectivity problems with remote repositories. Recognizing the symptoms – a command line frozen after “Counting objects,” “Compressing objects,” or “Writing objects,” sometimes even before – is key to effective troubleshooting. A hanging push often points towards a bottleneck or a silent failure in the communication pipeline between your local machine and GitHub’s servers, warranting a systematic investigation.

Common Causes of Git Push Hangs

When a Git push hangs, several factors could be at play, each requiring a different diagnostic approach. Identifying these common culprits is essential for quickly resolving the issue and preventing future occurrences. Understanding the underlying mechanisms behind these hangs helps pinpoint the exact problem faster.

One of the most frequent reasons for a Git push hangs when pushing to GitHub relates to network connectivity. This isn’t always about your internet being down; it could be an unstable connection, a restrictive firewall, or even a local proxy server interfering with Git’s communication. Corporate networks often have strict rules that might block certain ports or protocols Git uses, leading to silent failures rather than explicit rejections. Testing your network by trying to access other online services or even GitHub directly through your browser can offer initial clues.

Authentication problems are another significant factor. While Git usually provides clear error messages for incorrect credentials, sometimes a misconfigured SSH key or an expired personal access token (PAT) can lead to a hang if the server is waiting for a valid authentication response that never fully completes. This is especially true for SSH connections where the agent might be struggling to offer the correct key, or the key itself has permission issues. Ensuring your SSH agent is running and has the correct keys loaded is a vital first step.

Furthermore, large file pushes Git often cause pushes to hang. Git is not designed to handle very large binary files efficiently. Pushing a repository containing massive files (e.g., video files, large datasets, compiled binaries) without using Git LFS (Large File Storage) can severely slow down or completely stall the push process. GitHub also has rate limits and file size limits, which, if exceeded, can cause the server to respond slowly or drop the connection, making your local Git client wait indefinitely. This can also be compounded by GitHub rate limits, which might temporarily restrict your access if you’re performing too many operations in a short period.

When your Git push hangs when pushing to GitHub, a systematic approach to troubleshooting is your best strategy. This ordered list provides a comprehensive guide to diagnose and resolve the issue, moving from the simplest checks to more advanced solutions.

1. **Verify Network Connectivity:**Start by ensuring your internet connection is stable. Try opening GitHub in your web browser. If you can’t access GitHub or other websites, your network is the likely culprit. Check your Wi-Fi, Ethernet connection, and router. If you’re on a corporate network, firewalls or proxy settings might be blocking Git. You can test connectivity to GitHub’s SSH server by running ssh -T git@github.com. A successful connection will greet you with “Hi [username]! You’ve successfully authenticated…”

2. **Check Git Configuration and Credentials:**Ensure your Git configuration is correct. For HTTPS, check your stored credentials using a credential manager. For SSH, verify your SSH key is added to your SSH agent and registered with GitHub. Run ssh-add -l to list loaded keys and ensure the correct key for GitHub is present. If using HTTPS, try re-authenticating or generating a new Personal Access Token (PAT) if you suspect an expiry or corruption. You can find detailed instructions on creating a personal access token on GitHub’s documentation.

3. **Address Large Files with Git LFS:**If your repository contains large binary files (e.g., images, videos, large datasets), Git LFS is crucial. If you’ve committed large files directly to Git history, it can cause severe performance issues and hangs. Identify large files using tools like git rev-list --all --objects | git cat-file --batch-check='%(size) %(objectname) %(rest)' | sort -rh | head -n 10. If large files are found, consider migrating them to Git LFS and rewriting your history carefully. This process is complex and often requires assistance, but it is vital for repository health.

4. **Increase Git Buffer Size and Timeout:**Sometimes, the hang is due to Git’s default buffer size or a short timeout for large data transfers. You can increase the HTTP post buffer size: git config --global http.postBuffer 524288000 (for 500 MB). For SSH, a hanging push might benefit from increasing the SSH client’s ServerAliveInterval. This keeps the connection alive, preventing timeouts. You can add ServerAliveInterval 60 to your ~/.ssh/config file.

5. **Check GitHub Status and Rate Limits:**Question & Answer :
   Git push hangs everytime I try to push to github. I am using Cygwin and Windows 7. Git functions fine locally tracking branches, providing status, setting global user.name and user.email and allowing commits.

   I’m still new and learning.

   I enter git push , git push origin master or git push -u origin master and I get nothing but a blank line requiring me to ctl-c to get the prompt back.

   ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "<a class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="f9949cb99c81989489959cd79a9694" href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection">[email protected]</a>" asks me for a file name and hangs

   git push heroku master hangs

   $ git status returns On branch master nothing to commit, working directory clean

   $ git pull returns Already up to date

   $ git remote -v returns:

   heroku <a class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0b6c627f4b636e7964607e25686466" href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection">[email protected]</a>:myherokusite.git (fetch) heroku <a class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="66010f12260e0314090d134805090b" href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection">[email protected]</a>:myherokusite.git (push) origin https://github.com/gitusername/appname.git (fetch) origin https://github.com/gitusername/appname.git (push) or the correct ssh remote settings are returned when trying this with ssh 
   

   Updated: Using the SSH url <a class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="93f4fae7d3f4fae7fbe6f1bdf0fcfe" href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection">[email protected]</a>:gitusername/gitrepo.git also hangs

   git remote set-url origin https://github.com/gitusername/appname.git is correct

   Updated: I can see the git processes running in Windows Task Manager while it hangs.

   I’ve tried:

   Using different internet connection locations

   switching between https and ssh and it hangs

   Uninstalled git. Reinstalled from: https://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list

   Uninstalled git. Installed Cygwin’s git

   Uninstalled git. Installed Github for Windows GUI app and it I WAS able to push. But this app has limited functionality, forces me out of my Cygwin window into another app which then forces me into a Windows command prompt for complete functionality which I thought I had escaped by using Cygwin.

   Spent many, many hours trying to resolve this, it worked faultlessly before, thanks.

   UPDATE 4/2014: I rebuilt my entire machine Win 7, Cygwin etc and all is now working fine

   Restart your ssh agent!

   killall ssh-agent; eval `ssh-agent`