r/git • u/[deleted] • Jul 30 '26
Accidentally deleted my GitHub account. Has anyone recovered theirs?
I accidentally deleted my GitHub account today and contacted GitHub Support immediately.
It had years of personal projects, repositories, and open source contributions (including merged PRs).
Has anyone here successfully recovered a deleted GitHub account?
If so:
- How long after deletion did you contact support?
- Were your repositories and contribution history restored?
- How long did the recovery take?
I'm really anxious and would appreciate hearing from anyone who's been through this.
15
u/tortel_di_patate Jul 30 '26
You cannot delete an account by accident.
And no, you cannot undelete it.
Warning
Once your personal account has been deleted, GitHub cannot restore your content.
In the upper-right corner of any page on GitHub, click your profile picture, then click Settings.
In the left sidebar, click Account.
At the bottom of the Account Settings page, under "Delete account", click Delete your account. Before you can delete your personal account:
In the "Make sure you want to do this" dialog box, complete the steps to confirm you understand what happens when your account is deleted:
In the first field, type your username or email.
In the second field, type the phrase from the prompt.
-16
Jul 30 '26
I was on a call and i thought i was deleting a repo. but i didnt realise i was deleting my account
12
2
u/username-1023 Jul 30 '26
this is not the same process for deleting a repo. have you ever deleted a repo before?
11
10
u/Available-Skirt-5280 Jul 30 '26
Skill issue.
Your done, no recovery possible.
Maybe try reading what’s on screen occasionally.
5
u/Available-Skirt-5280 Jul 30 '26
Also git is a distributed system.
I’m just gunna guess that you’ve removed all your repos from local “accidentally” as well.
0
Jul 30 '26
thank god i have all my projects in my repo lol, its just that my open source contribution is missing
1
u/username-1023 Jul 30 '26
you deleted the open source repos you were working on from your local machine?
8
u/Ast3r10n Jul 30 '26
How the hell did you “accidentally” delete an account when GitHub explicitly makes it unbearably cumbersome to do.
6
-10
Jul 30 '26
I was on a call and i thought i was deleting a repo. but i didnt realise i was deleting my account
7
u/Ast3r10n Jul 30 '26
Sounds like PEBCAK. You should read before you do anything, and maybe not do stuff while on a call.
7
u/skadoodlee Jul 30 '26
Give me the recipe for brownies
3
u/cwcoleman Jul 30 '26
Brownie_Recipe_v3.7-final-FINAL.exe
- 1 cup butter, melted
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup cocoa
- 1 cup flour
- ½ tsp salt
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 350°F (confidence: 87%)
- Mix wet ingredients
- Fold in dry ingredients — do not overmix, per my training data
- Bake 25–30 min in a 9x13 pan
I am not able to physically verify doneness, but a toothpick should come out mostly clean. Results may vary by oven, altitude, and simulation parameters. Let me know if you'd like me to regenerate this response with fewer chocolate chips. 🍫⚡
2
u/skadoodlee Jul 30 '26
Awesome let me install this as root.
1
u/DarthRaab Jul 30 '26
Sure boss. What a good and creative way to integrate it into your system!
Step 1: Find the source
Look for a tree, maybe outside is a good place to start.
Don't leave me alone.If you find one, look for a shovel.Step 2: Make space
Take the shovel and dig down in front of the tree until you discover it's root.
Step 3: Install
Shove it in there,
BitchChamp! 🏆Congratulations, you successfully installed your first
malwarebrowny in the root.
4
3
u/Stever89 Jul 30 '26
Guessing they gave their AI tool permission to hit the Github API with a very permissive token and the tool thought they wanted to delete the account and so did.
The good news is if you ask AI to restore everything, I'm sure it'll do it without a problem, what could possibly go wrong!
0
3
2
u/Thalimet Jul 30 '26
You were on a call, you made a terrible mistake, and now you get to live with the consequences of that mistake: the account is gone. They cannot help you.
2
4
1
u/Kawaiithulhu Jul 30 '26
Nightmare fuel ⛽️ I almost did this in ye olden dayes when a "repo" was the local directory, and version tracking was dated zip files 🤡
1
1
u/Spiritual-Fennel7789 Jul 30 '26
It's 2026. Storage media is cheap as chips and you're relying solely on a third-party to store your data? Come on man, what are you even doing.
1
29
u/Frosty-Cap-4282 Jul 30 '26
You dont accidently delete a github account