"Clone in Mac' fails on GitHub. Takes me to download page every time

Question

I've reinstalled, uninstalled, restarted but "Clone in Mac' on any repository page fails and takes me to the GitHub download page every time.

It was working fine earlier this week but today won't do anything useful.

Any idea why?

Solution 1

It appears not only do you have to log in to the website, you have to log in to the application once as well so it knows you've got it installed. Then refresh the git repo page and the links will automagically change from the download page to an open-application page.

Solution 2

I tried the above suggestions of making sure I was logged in to both the site and the Github-Mac application (which I already was) and installing the CLI tools. This didn't fix it for me. After some digging I found this article which explains how it works.

There should be a server listening on your localhost with https://ghconduit.com:25035/status and it should return a json string that looks something like this:

{"capabilities":["status","unique_id","url-parameter-filepath"],"running":true,"server_version":"5"}

In my case I did not get a result so I tried 127.0.0.1 instead of ghconduit.com and that fixed it.

TL;DR: Add an entry for 127.0.0.1 ghconduit.com to your /etc/hosts file and refresh the github page you are on and the clone on desktop function will work.

Solution 3

As was noted in the comments: You must be logged in to Github for the "Clone on Mac" button work.

(This answer serves mostly to remove this question from the "unanswered" list, since the asker does not seem to be closing it)

Solution 4

Even doing all the above failed for me, but here's what did work:

Open a new tab.

Paste this in the address bar (without quotes): "github-mac://openRepo/"

On the repo you want to clone, copy the HTTPS clone URL, and paste it after the link above. Press enter.

If the server is listening on your Mac @rjason-lindberg mentioned, then it should open up in GutHub for Mac.

Solution 5

I just had this problem, and I found two steps necessary to get it working: the "log in" answer above, and to open GitHub.app, got to Preferences > Advanced > Install Command Line Tools. This took no time. I then refreshed the github page, and saw that the link now led to something like: "github-mac://openRepo/https://github.com/......" Click it and it worked.

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Comments

[RCross]

This didn't work for me. I logged out, then back in to GitHub, and I have the application open on my desktop too (there's no option to log in/out of that), yet I still get sent to the download page when using the "Clone to Desktop" button from the web page.

[Matthemattics]

I had to log out of GitHub for Mac, and then back into it, before it started working

[Tom Kidd]

How weird but yeah this is what did it for me too

[jsky]

how did you clone it using the webapp? Nothing else has worked for me, except using SourceTree instead.

[TommyAutoMagically]

Not sure... It's been a while since I wrote this. Maybe I meant "Fork the repository on github.com." I understand if this is indeed what I meant, this answer probably doesn't help you. :/

[f055]

Also, make sure you are logged into the same account on both GitHub site and GitHub for Mac.

[tnrich]

Going to: 127.0.0.1:25035/status returns nothing for me. Any tips for troubleshooting that?

[Abhishek Thapliyal]

Awesomeeeeeeeeeeeee

[Reb.Cabin]

Almost worked for me. The URL generated by clicking on "Open in Desktop" on the web site is x-github-client://openRepo/https://blahblah. I discover that by holding down splat key while clicking on "Open in Desktop," opening the URL in a new Tab. If i manually change the URL in Chrome's type-in address box on that new tab to github-mac://openRepo/https://blahblah then the desktop app opens. I don't know how to hook up x-github-client with github-mac, so I'm still blocked, but there is a clue.

[Louie Almeda]

Wow, that's surprisingly effective! 😱