Repository Not Found when pushing to GitHub remote

Question

I created a repository on GitHub called 'messages' and a local repository with the same name. I am trying to push the files from my local repo to the remote but get this error:

ERROR: Repository not found.
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly.

I figured it was an authentication issue. And when I ran

ssh -T [email protected]

I did get a message indicating that my key did not work. So I added my ~/.ssh/github_rsa.pub to the SSH keys in my account on GitHub (deleted the one that already existed there) and ran the command again. This time I received a message saying -

Hi septerr! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

From what I read this seemed to be the expected message. So, I again tried the push. But received same error. Repository not found.

Swapnas-MacBook-Pro:messages sony$ git remote -v show
origin  [email protected]:seterr/messages.git (fetch)
origin  [email protected]:seterr/messages.git (push)
Swapnas-MacBook-Pro:messages sony$ git push -u origin master
ERROR: Repository not found.
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

When I look at my repo on GitHub I see:

Existing Git Repo?
cd existing_git_repo
git remote add origin [email protected]:septerr/messages.git
git push -u origin master

What could be wrong?

Answer 1

I had the same problem. My issue was misunderstanding that I had to first create the empty repo on github before pushing to it. Doh! Including this here for anyone else who doesn't realize.

Answer 2

If you are receiving this error and a typo is not the cause, as was my scenario, try opening .git/config and deleting the section:

[remote "origin"]   
url = [email protected]:yourgitusername/my_project.git  
fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*

Then rerun the following (replace 'yourgitusername'):

git remote add origin [email protected]:yourgitusername/my_project.git   
git push -u origin master

This resolved the problem for me. Credit to this answer on a similar question: Git Push ERROR: Repository not found