[github] Github "Updates were rejected because the remote contains work that you do not have locally."

I created a new repo, cloned it, added files to the directory, added them with add -A, committed changes, and when I try to push using git push <repo name> master I get:

hint: Updates were rejected because the remote contains work that you do not have locally. This is usually caused by another repository pushing to the same ref. You may want to first merge the remote changes (e.g., hint: 'git pull') before pushing again.

This doesn't seem to make sense since it's a new repo and contains only a readme file.

The issue is because the local is not up-to-date with the master branch that is why we are supposed to pull the code before pushing it to the git

git add .
git commit -m 'Comments to be added'
git pull origin master
git push origin master

The supplied answers didn't work for me.

I had an empty repo on GitHub with only the LICENSE file and a single commit locally. What worked was:

$ git fetch
$ git merge --allow-unrelated-histories
Merge made by the 'recursive' strategy.
 LICENSE | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 LICENSE

Also before merge you may want to:

$ git branch --set-upstream-to origin/master
Branch 'master' set up to track remote branch 'master' from 'origin'.

If this is your first push

just change the

git push <repo name> master

change it like this!

git push -f <repo name> master

The error possibly comes because of the different structure of the code that you are committing and that present on GitHub. It creates conflicts which can be solved by

git pull

Merge conflicts resolving:

git push

If you confirm that your new code is all fine you can use:

git push -f origin master

Where -f stands for "force commit".

I followed these steps:

Pull the master:

git pull origin master

This will sync your local repo with the Github repo. Add your new file and then:

git add .

Commit the changes:

git commit -m "adding new file  Xyz"

Finally, push the origin master:

git push origin master

Refresh your Github repo, you will see the newly added files.

You may refer to: How to deal with "refusing to merge unrelated histories" error:

$ git pull --allow-unrelated-histories
$ git push -f origin master

If you are using Visual S2019, Create a new local branch as shown in following, and then push the changes to the repo.