Second commit pushed to remote branch is not showing up in Pull Request

[IsaacG]

Select Topic Area

Question

Body

1. I created this branch.
2. I pushed this first commit to that branch.
3. I used that branch to create this upstream PR.
4. I fixed an issue on that branch with this second commit.

That second commit says "This commit does not belong to any branch on this repository" yet it's listed as a commit on the branch. As such, that second commit isn't showing up in the PR.

I don't think I've seen this happen before. Did I do something wrong? Did something break on the GitHub side?

[iHiD]

To add a data point, this "Processing Updates" still shows 14 hours later. The link is to this blog post

[github-actions[bot]]

🕒 Discussion Activity Reminder 🕒

This Discussion has been labeled as dormant by an automated system for having no activity in the last 60 days. Please consider one the following actions:

1️⃣ Close as Out of Date: If the topic is no longer relevant, close the Discussion as out of date at the bottom of the page.

2️⃣ Provide More Information: Share additional details or context — or let the community know if you've found a solution on your own.

3️⃣ Mark a Reply as Answer: If your question has been answered by a reply, mark the most helpful reply as the solution.

Note: This dormant notification will only apply to Discussions with the Question label. To learn more, see our recent announcement.

Thank you for helping bring this Discussion to a resolution! 💬

[IsaacG]

Still hoping for a response!

[github-actions[bot]]

🕒 Discussion Activity Reminder 🕒

This Discussion has been labeled as dormant by an automated system for having no activity in the last 60 days. Please consider one the following actions:

1️⃣ Close as Out of Date: If the topic is no longer relevant, close the Discussion as out of date at the bottom of the page.

2️⃣ Provide More Information: Share additional details or context — or let the community know if you've found a solution on your own.

3️⃣ Mark a Reply as Answer: If your question has been answered by a reply, mark the most helpful reply as the solution.

Note: This dormant notification will only apply to Discussions with the Question label. To learn more, see our recent announcement.

Thank you for helping bring this Discussion to a resolution! 💬

[jfullstackdev]

from your description :

• first commit → pushed → PR created ✅
• second commit → says “This commit does not belong to any branch on this repository” ❌

this message usually happens when the commit is not actually on the branch that the PR is tracking, a few common causes, though I'm not so sure of this :

a. detached HEAD commit

• if you made the second commit while in a detached HEAD state (not on any branch), Git creates the commit, but it isn’t attached to your branch
• when you push the branch later, Git doesn’t know about that commit because it’s not in the branch’s history

b. pushed to a different branch / typo in branch name

• sometimes people create a local branch but accidentally push to a branch with a slightly different name
• the PR tracks only the branch it was opened from, any commits on a differently named branch don’t appear

c. local branch wasn’t pushed

• if you committed locally but didn’t push (git push origin <branch>), GitHub never receives the commit
• it may appear in your local log (git log) but not on GitHub

---

How To Check

Run these commands locally:

# See current branch
git branch

# See commit history for the branch
git log --oneline

# Compare local branch vs remote
git fetch origin
git log origin/<branch-name>..HEAD

• If git log origin/<branch-name>..HEAD shows your second commit, it hasn’t been pushed yet.
• If it’s not there, your commit might be detached or on a different branch.

---

How To Fix

case A: commit is detached

1. Create a branch pointing to that commit:

git checkout -b temp-fix <commit-hash>

2. Merge it into your PR branch:

git checkout <pr-branch>
git merge temp-fix

3. Push the PR branch:

git push origin <pr-branch>

case B: commit on wrong branch

• Rebase or cherry-pick it onto the correct branch:

git checkout <pr-branch>
git cherry-pick <commit-hash>
git push origin <pr-branch>

case C: commit not pushed

• Simply push the branch:

git push origin <pr-branch>

---

Edge Cases & Tips

• Force-push after rebasing: If you rebased your branch after opening the PR, you may need to run:

  git push --force origin <pr-branch>

  to update GitHub’s history.

• GitHub indexing lag: Occasionally, GitHub’s background indexing takes a moment. Pushing an empty commit or closing and reopening the PR can force a refresh.

  git commit --allow-empty -m "trigger PR refresh"
  git push origin <pr-branch>

• Cross-fork workflows: Ensure you are pushing to the same fork and branch that the PR was created from. Commits pushed elsewhere won’t appear in the PR.

---

so,

• GitHub PRs show commits that exist on the branch in the remote repo
• if a commit appears “unattached,” it’s likely detached, on the wrong branch, or not pushed
• use git log and git branch to verify, then merge or cherry-pick as needed and push

[IsaacG]

Thanks for the reply. If you look at the branch on GitHub (linked in my first post) it shows it contains the commit in question, ea12de7, as the second-last commit.
If you compare the branch in question to the branch I'm trying to merge it into (upstream/main) on GitHub, it shows the commit in question, ea12de7.
Yet if you view the commit in question ea12de7 on GitHub, it says the commit does not belong to any branch.

# Current branch in my local repo.
» git branch --show-current
deprecate.scale_generator

# Last three commits in my local repo, showing the commit in question as the latest commit.
» git log --oneline | head -n 3
ea12de73a Run configlet fmt
1131e93c5 Mark Scale Generator as deprecated
9bd79d56c Bump core-js from 3.41.0 to 3.42.0 (#2623)

# No difference on the branch between my local repo and origin.
» git fetch origin; git log origin/$(git branch --show-current)..HEAD | wc -l
0

[github-actions[bot]]

🕒 Discussion Activity Reminder 🕒

This Discussion has been labeled as dormant by an automated system for having no activity in the last 60 days. Please consider one the following actions:

1️⃣ Close as Out of Date: If the topic is no longer relevant, close the Discussion as out of date at the bottom of the page.

2️⃣ Provide More Information: Share additional details or context — or let the community know if you've found a solution on your own.

3️⃣ Mark a Reply as Answer: If your question has been answered by a reply, mark the most helpful reply as the solution.

Note: This dormant notification will only apply to Discussions with the Question label. To learn more, see our recent announcement.

Thank you for helping bring this Discussion to a resolution! 💬

[IsaacG]

Still hoping for a response!

[jashwinsingh11]

This usually happens when the commit you pushed isn’t actually part of the branch’s current history anymore — even if it briefly existed on the branch at some point. A few common causes:

1. The branch was force-pushed or rebased
   If you (or someone else) rebased the branch or force-pushed it after the second commit, that commit may have been rewritten or detached.
   GitHub will then show:

“This commit does not belong to any branch on this repository”
because the commit object exists, but no branch tip references it anymore.

2. The second commit was pushed to a different remote or incorrect branch
   If the commit was pushed to a fork, a different remote, or a typo’d branch name, the local history may look correct but GitHub sees it as an orphan.

3. The PR branch is behind because the commit was never included in the pushed history
   Sometimes a local commit exists, but the push didn’t include it (e.g., pushing without --all, or pushing to a different remote).
   Running:

git log
git remote -v
git branch -vv

How to fix it
Make sure your local branch has the commit in its history:

git log --oneline

Ensure you are on the correct branch:

git branch

Force-push the correct branch history back up:
git push origin --force

This will re-attach the commit to the branch and the PR will update immediately.

[IsaacG]

Did you read the above? The commit is part of the branch.

Thanks for the reply. If you look at the branch on GitHub (linked in my first post) it shows it contains the commit in question, ea12de7, as the second-last commit.
If you compare the branch in question to the branch I'm trying to merge it into (upstream/main) on GitHub, it shows the commit in question, ea12de7.
Yet if you view the commit in question ea12de7 on GitHub, it says the commit does not belong to any branch.

# Current branch in my local repo.
» git branch --show-current
deprecate.scale_generator

# Last three commits in my local repo, showing the commit in question as the latest commit.
» git log --oneline | head -n 3
ea12de73a Run configlet fmt
1131e93c5 Mark Scale Generator as deprecated
9bd79d56c Bump core-js from 3.41.0 to 3.42.0 (#2623)

# No difference on the branch between my local repo and origin.
» git fetch origin; git log origin/$(git branch --show-current)..HEAD | wc -l
0

[anthonioxzxeroz-cpu]

Enviado desde mi iPhoneEl 12/11/2025, a la(s) 19:39, github-actions[bot] ***@***.***> escribió: 🕒 Discussion Activity Reminder 🕒 This Discussion has been labeled as dormant by an automated system for having no activity in the last 60 days. Please consider one the following actions: 1️⃣ Close as Out of Date: If the topic is no longer relevant, close the Discussion as out of date at the bottom of the page. 2️⃣ Provide More Information: Share additional details or context — or let the community know if you've found a solution on your own. 3️⃣ Mark a Reply as Answer: If your question has been answered by a reply, mark the most helpful reply as the solution. Note: This dormant notification will only apply to Discussions with the Question label. To learn more, see our recent announcement. Thank you for helping bring this Discussion to a resolution! 💬 —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>