Reattach a "Detached" fork in Github?

Question

I'm wondering if there is anyway to reattach a "detached" repository in GitHub?

Order of events:

1. Forked a private repository from an organization I belong to
2. Parent, private repository went public
3. I made my forked repository public as well (or get billed)
4. Now when I was hoping to submit a pull request and merge some changes, I noticed that my fork is "detached" from the parent repository (see this explanation and confirmation as to why)

Is there any hope of "reattaching" this fork? Or do I rename my repository, fork again, and copy over code?

Any suggestions welcome.

Answer 1

The answer to delete the repository is destructive and will lose any progress and comments in open pull requests.

The best solution is to contact GitHub via a support message detailing that you have changed a repository from private to public and the forks are in a detached state. GitHub will do the change for you, in my case within 30mins.

Support contact form: Github support contact page

Answer 2

Thanks to @saeedgnu for the elegant and perfect suggestion. Solution was to:

1. Make sure to pull and update local git repository from personal, detached fork GitHub repository
2. Delete personal, detached fork GitHub repo
3. Re-fork repository on GitHub
4. The key: the local git repository is still pointing at the correct GitHub repo. It has the current code from your now-deleted, detached GitHub fork, so you can push changes (and continue to submit pull requests) like nothing ever happened!

Phew. Crisis averted.