IntelliJ cannot log in to GitHub

Question

For some reason, a new IntelliJ installation is unable to log in to GitHub. (The credentials are correct.)

It happens both when I try to "share project on githu" and "checkout project from version control", select Git and then try to log in to GitHub.

Here's the login prompt:

Server: github.com
Login: 
Password:

And the error message:

Invalid authentication data. Can't create token:
scopes - [repo, gist] - not IntelliJ Plugin_1 422
Unprocessable Entity - Validation Failed
[OauthAccess; description]already_exists: null

Now, this is on a freshly installed Windows 10 computer, with a freshly installed IntelliJ. So there are no old tokens or anything like that anywhere in the system. This is the first attempt to access GitHub from IntelliJ. Logging in via web works fine.

user_3757260 · Answer

That kind of error messages can be frustrating, as it takes more than a little knowledge on the subject to understand exactly what is wrong. Usually, however, the problem is either the authentication (invalid username/email/password) or that there's a problem with git (locally).

First of all, check that you have git installed by running "git" from the command prompt. This is a more common mistake than one would think.

Second, try y.bedrov's suggestion. Log in to github.com on the web. Settings -> Developer settings -> Personal access tokens. Create a new token and then, in IntelliJ, select Enter Token at the login prompt.

Tokens are considered a more secure way to authenticate, I believe.

user_1597179 · Answer

Oh, in case you generated the token from GitHub and are unable to use that in IntelliJ...

Then, go to Settings -> Version Control -> GitHub

In the Login to GitHub popup, click "Use Token" on the top right corner of the popup.

Add your token and enjoy.

user_14058000 · Answer

When you make first attempt to access GitHub from IntelliJ, you do not have intellij-github authorization in place and also tokens.

So, follow the instructions here to get rid to this issue. https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/github.html#register-account

After this, the project can be easliy shared on github.

user_5290519 · Answer

From my experience, you will have to set the remote of this project, try to find the "Remote..." within the "VCS" tab, then when you set it, IntelliJ will open your default browser and there is a permission check, which is what lead to your error message.

In short, Set remote, Authorize IntelliJ on GitHub Settings.

user_3797224 · Answer

In my situation it was because I was behind a proxy and IntelliJ was not able to reach the internet. To verify whether IntelliJ is able to reach the internet go to Settings>System Settings>HTTP Proxy Click on check connection and try for example http://google.nl.

I had to set my proxy to Auto-detect so it will use the proxy of Windows.

user_7523979 · Answer

The issue is that IDE tries to create a token with the name that already exists. Appears to be related with the token name case - see https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-198120

As a workaround, navigate to https://github.com/settings/tokens and delete all tokens called IntelliJ Plugin (including those with suffix)

user_14715236 · Answer

I have had the same problem to sign up from Android Studio's interface to my GitHub account. At the end what worked is installing Git from VSC tab as this guy said: https://stackoverflow.com/a/65059893/14715236

But i still not being able to access my account (note: with Login-Password method) so generating token it worked.

user_4625150 · Answer

Couple of issues can be there to block you from accessing your github repo and throwing 403 error. Hence please go step by step.

Step-1 : Local git is corrupted or not working

git branch -r [If it gives result you are good]

git ls-remote --heads

if one of the above is working then your local git is good. If not use

git config --global --unset credential.helper

Step-2 : From your IDE (IntelliJ or PHPStorm etc) see git is configured and test it.

Go to Default Settings-->GitHub and Your host should be "https://github.com"

Get your Github personal token. Login to your github account from browser. Settings -> Developer settings -> Personal access tokens. o Select all “repo”, gist and “read.org” in your scope. o Create the token

Last step: If still not working, Go to VCS--> GIT --> Remotes --> Change the repo to include token explicitly

https://user_name:@github.com/reponame.git

Paste the token in your IDE and test the connection. If your problem still persists then check if there is network issue.

user_11053252 · Answer

I also had the problem with logging to github using Intelij IDE. It shown "invalid authentication data" msg with 404 error. Installing the latest version of the IDE solve that problem.

user_13856000 · Answer

If you use two factor auth then you need to use an access token.

If you use HTTPs access, after 2-factor authentication is enabled you will need to configure an Access token (BitBucket calls it app password) and use it to authenticate.

https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/206537004-How-to-access-GIT-remote-repositories-with-2-factor-authentication

Github has disabled password based auth to api as here https://docs.github.com/en/rest/overview/other-authentication-methods

user_13287734 · Answer

In my case somehow I was logged out and IDE was showing this error repeatedly instead of login prompt. So, I just logged in again in setting-> Version Control -> github.

There I saw I was logged out. After logging in, error was gone and prompt for Access token was shown when I clicked on git->github on top menu of IDE.

Hope my answer helps you saving some time

IntelliJ cannot log in to GitHub

11 Answers