I want to transfer my commit history from an old accoun to a new account and also transfer my repos to the new account

[sambitsingha]

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I got 2 github accounts. The older account , let's say "a" has all of my repos and contributions in it. Now I havee created a new account , let's say "b". I want to transfer all the repos from Account a to Account b. Along with it , I want to transfer my contributions to the new account.

P.S - In the older account , I used the Github's private email address for the commits , PR's and issues

[Mington84]

You can transfer them one by one through the repository settings in GitHub. For your contributions, it's a bit tricky since GitHub doesn’t transfer contributions directly. You might need to update your email in the commits on the old repos to match your new account’s email if you want to keep the history consistent.

[sambitsingha]

Ok for transfer I understood , can you explain the process of transfering the contributions in details, exactly which email to use where.

[Nihal-A-Khan]

Hello @sambitsingha

Here is the process to transfer your repositories from GitHub account 'a' to GitHub account 'b':

1. Log into GitHub account 'a' and select into the repository you would like to be transferred.
2. Navigate to Settings > General.
3. Scroll down and click 'Transfer' and follow the prompts to transfer that repository to GitHub account 'b'.
4. The final step in the repository transfer process will be to confirm the transfer by typing in the repository name and new owner's name(account 'b' username)
5. Repeat this process for each repository you would like transfer.

Here is the process to ensure your contributions are correctly attributed to GitHub account 'b':

1. Open your terminal or command prompt on your local machine.
2. Clone the repo from GitHub account 'b' to your local machine using this bash command(I'm assuming you are on Windows OS): git clone https://github.com/AccountB/repository-name.git
3. If the above does not work, install Git from their official website: https://git-scm.com/downloads
4. Navigate to repository using this bash command: cd repository-name
5. Install git-filter-repo using this bash command: pip install git-filter-repo
6. Run git-filter-repo to update commit history with your new email address for account 'b', using this bash command(be sure to replace your [email protected] with your GitHub account 'a' email address and replace [email protected] with your GitHub account 'b' email address):
   git filter-repo --commit-callback '
   if commit.author_email == b"[email protected]":
   commit.author_email = b"[email protected]"
   if commit.committer_email == b"[email protected]":
   commit.committer_email = b"[email protected]"
   '
7. Verify the change was correct using this bash command(This command will show you a list of commits with author and committer names and emails.): git log --pretty=format:'%h %an %ae %cn %ce %s'
8. Once you are satisfied with your changes, force push the rewritten commit history to GitHub account 'b' using the bash command:
   git push --force
9. Repeat this process for each repository(It will be tedious).

NOTES:

• Backup Your Repositories: Before performing any history rewriting, make sure you have a backup of your repositories in case something goes wrong.
• Notify Collaborators: If other people are working on the repository, inform them before force-pushing changes, as they will need to re-clone or rebase their local copies.
• Rebase vs. Rewrite History: Rewriting history is a powerful but risky operation. If your goal is simply to ensure future commits use the new email address, you only need to update the local Git configuration.
• Unfortunately, to my knowledge GitHub contributions (e.g., issues, pull requests) tied to Account "a" won’t automatically transfer to Account "b". Contributions are generally associated with the account that created them. You can manually re-create any issues or pull requests from Account "a" in Account "b" if needed.
• This process involves certain risks and may not guarantee the desired outcome. Proceed with your own discretion and caution. I cannot be held responsible for any issues or complications that arise from following this method. You assume all responsibility for the results.

If you have any further questions or if this process works for you, please let me know! If it resolves your issue, please mark this response as the answer! Thank you in advance!

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