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This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2023-01-18. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Changing your GitHub username

In this article

You can change the username for your account on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance if your instance uses built-in authentication.

Note: If you sign into your GitHub Enterprise Server instance with LDAP credentials or single sign-on (SSO), only your local administrator can change your username. For more information about authentication methods for GitHub Enterprise Server, see "Authenticating users for your GitHub Enterprise Server instance."

About username changes

You can change your username to another username that is not currently in use.

After changing your username, your old username becomes available for anyone else to claim. Most references to your repositories under the old username automatically change to the new username. However, some links to your profile won't automatically redirect.

GitHub Enterprise Server cannot set up redirects for:

  • @mentions using your old username
  • Links to gists that include your old username

Repository references

After you change your username, GitHub Enterprise Server will automatically redirect references to your repositories.

  • Web links to your existing repositories will continue to work. This can take a few minutes to complete after you make the change.
  • Command line pushes from your local repository clones to the old remote tracking URLs will continue to work.

If the new owner of your old username creates a repository with the same name as your repository, that will override the redirect entry and your redirect will stop working. Because of this possibility, we recommend you update all existing remote repository URLs after changing your username. For more information, see "Managing remote repositories."

Links to your previous profile page

After changing your username, links to your previous profile page, such as https://[hostname]/previoususername, will return a 404 error. We recommend updating any links to your account on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance from elsewhere.

Your Git commits

If your Git commits are associated with another email address you've added to your GitHub account, they'll continue to be attributed to you and appear in your contributions graph after you've changed your username. For more information on setting your email address, see "Setting your commit email address."

Your gists

After changing your username, the URLs to any public or secret gists will also change and previous links to these will return a 404 error. We recommend updating the links to these gists anywhere you may have shared them.

Changing your username

  1. In the upper-right corner of any page, click your profile photo, then click Settings.

    Settings icon in the user bar

  2. In the left sidebar, click Account. Account settings menu option

  3. In the "Change username" section, click Change username. Change Username button

Further reading