GitHub Classroom: "Repository Access Issue"

[gchallen]

Hi everyone,

We're using GitHub Classroom to help students set up repositories in my ~1000 student CS1 course at Illinois. Overall it works great! However, it seems like every semester we run into some strange issue.

This term one student arrives at the following screen when trying to accept the Classroom invitation:

I've checked both through Classroom and in our organization where the repositories are created, and can verify that there are no repositories created for this student. In the past when we've had repository creation issues I've been able to delete the semi-created repository and start over. But in this case I'm at a loss for what to do. I'm suggesting that the student try creating a new GitHub account and see if that helps, but that's not a great workaround.

I'm happy to provide more details if someone from GitHub can look into this more closely. Thanks in advance!

A suggestion...(optional)

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[girodg]

any updates on this? I have a student encountering the same problem.

[kaliprogramer]

@girodg go to the student repo through the assignment list, click settings > collaborators and teams. under manage access you'll see a pending invite. for whatever reason, that invite is invalid, so delete it and re-invite (Add people). use their github username and grant write access.

when the student goes back to github the new invite will either automatically pop up for them, or they can click on the inbox icon in the upper-right with the blue dot and accept.

about half my students are getting hit with this this semester.

[chrissexton]

If your organization has 2FA requirement turned on, be sure the student actually has their account set up for it.

[gchallen]

FYI, at least in the case posted above the student's GitHub account had actually been disabled. So that's something else to check.

[LiliWeiSE]

Hi,
May I know how we can check whether a student's GitHub account was actually disabled?

[Mayank447]

I had the same issue. Go the student's repository, in my case it was created but when the student tried accessing it, it showed the same error. Manually invite him and the error should get fixed.

[emmett-tomai]

@StefanidisK go to the student repo through the assignment list, click settings > collaborators and teams. under manage access you'll see a pending invite. for whatever reason, that invite is invalid, so delete it and re-invite (Add people). use their github username and grant write access.

when the student goes back to github the new invite will either automatically pop up for them, or they can click on the inbox icon in the upper-right with the blue dot and accept.

about half my students are getting hit with this this semester.

[StefanidisK]

@StefanidisK go to the student repo through the assignment list, click settings > collaborators and teams. under manage access you'll see a pending invite. for whatever reason, that invite is invalid, so delete it and re-invite (Add people). use their github username and grant write access.

when the student goes back to github the new invite will either automatically pop up for them, or they can click on the inbox icon in the upper-right with the blue dot and accept.

about half my students are getting hit with this this semester.

Thank you. Someone else sent me these instructions too and I got it working. Thanks!

[AndrewVenegas]

Hi guys, does anyone know how to solve this efficiently?

I have 100 students and I’m currently sending each of them a new invitation manually.

Thank u!

[nikmomo]

Hi guys, does anyone know how to solve this efficiently?

I have 100 students and I’m currently sending each of them a new invitation manually.

Thank u!

https://github.com/nikmomo/GHClassroom.AccessFix This would help. I am running it on 2 courses with 5 sections

[bogdanned]

Hey there, same here, we have 100s of student and a dozen repositories...

[norandomtechie]

Just wanted to drop my two cents on this:

This appears to be happening for every student in our course as of February (about 200 this semester), not just the one. Thankfully it does seem like the repositories are getting created, but the issue has still not been fixed - if anything, it's worse.

[CodyHenrichsen-CTEC]

I just had three students with the same error. I am going to try resetting the repo.

[CodyHenrichsen-CTEC]

Deleted repo and recreate is the same error for students. up to 5 now

[Parsa-Rajabi]

Following this post for updates. The issue has bubbled up again -- can anyone from @github-staff comment?

[vincentsijben]

Just happened to 2 of my students as well. Different organisations... Hope its a bug and its fixed soon 😉

[Parsa-Rajabi]

Hey Vincent, have you thought about any work arounds for the current issue? (e.g. using a different platform?) These issues are making me re-think using GH Classroom moving forward...

[vincentsijben]

nah, just wait until its fixed 😉 hopefully within 24 hours 😆

[gbacon]

I was able to work around the problem by deleting the assignment repos created for the students who got the error and having them reaccept the assignment.

[nelsonlim]

Just happened to my students as well. While we can manually add students. It does become a pain on scale.

[Mitchman215]

Also is happening in our course for a lot of students, have to manually add

[Ujoa]

@github-staff

[lisamru]

Ran into this issue as well today for 2 students. They were able to access their first two assignments with no issues and could not access the third.

[lisamru]

Just had another section and another student is unable to access. Hopefully this is resolved by the time we have our official lab on Thursday!

[ekgibbons]

Same issue with my courses. It seems like any assignments that were accepted yesterday were okay. Anything that was accepted today ran into this issue.

[JoshIsomLehigh]

Several students successfully accepted assignments this morning, but as of several hours ago students report "when I try to accept the assignment on github it says that I no longer have access" I submitted a ticket at https://support.github.com/

[ctnelson1997]

This issue is still sporadically affecting my students in March. I will be moving off of GitHub at the end of the semester.

[vincentsijben]

it never stopped doing this for my students :(

[susanettenheim]

What will you use instead?

…

On Wed, Mar 4, 2026, 10:57 AM Cole Nelson ***@***.***> wrote: This issue is still sporadically affecting my students in March. I will be moving off of GitHub at the end of the semester. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#72283 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABHCREZ62GP4OXBXUD3LPBD4PBG55AVCNFSM6AAAAACFHKMTNCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTKOJZHE2TONA> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[ctnelson1997]

I'll just be having students download a ZIP of the starter code and submit their solution to GradeScope instead. They'll lose out on the git experience, but the number of issues I've had with GitHub classroom over the past year no longer make it worth it.

[nikmomo]

I recommend everyone to try https://github.com/nikmomo/GHClassroom.AccessFix
It is being validated in several college classes for 2 semesters. Proved working.

[ProfMStoica]

Thank you, that's good to know. In my case, the email invites are correct, just a nuisance. What I discovered is that students don't always know which email they used to sign up for GitHub, and they don't find their invites because they are looking in the wrong email account (e.g., a school account when their personal account was linked to GitHub). If I start seeing actual broken invites, I'll give this a try.

[nikmomo]

Thank you, that's good to know. In my case, the email invites are correct, just a nuisance. What I discovered is that students don't always know which email they used to sign up for GitHub, and they don't find their invites because they are looking in the wrong email account (e.g., a school account when their personal account was linked to GitHub). If I start seeing actual broken invites, I'll give this a try.

Students should verify their GitHub account before accepting any homework assignments, since GitHub Classroom currently allows anyone to join a classroom and link to any person.

[kellychristopher381-sudo]

With a class that size, even small hiccups can surface in unexpected ways, have you checked whether it’s a permissions or account-linking issue on GitHub’s side? It might also help to compare the invite flow step-by-step (almost like using LemReveal to spot subtle differences) to see where the process diverges for that student.

[hotdogontology]

My current workaround is:

• Have the students accept the assignment
• Log out of GitHub
• Log back in to GitHub
• Check either the email they have associated with their GitHub account OR the Inbox Tray on their GitHub homepage

This gives them access to the repo, but it is frustrating that they do not have access directly after accepting the assignment like they should.

[mamaoxi]

I first searched for the specific repository corresponding to the student. Then, on the Settings page of the repository, under the Collaborator TAB, I found the student. After deleting the student's permissions, I invited again to resend the invitation. If there is no student in Collaborator, just add him, and he will receive an email to verify.
When granting permissions, just write when inviting from the repository. Do not invite to the organization

[ssyberg]

Just noting my class this year is experiencing this a ton as well during every assignment/lab, it's quite disruptive. Never happened in previous years for us.

[ProfMStoica]

My students are all of a sudden getting 500 errors when accepting a GitHub Classroom assignment. This is usually temporary, and they can accept the assignment a few hours or a day later. Is anyone experiencing this problem currently?

[Gchism94]

Yes, this has honestly been a new one for me (literally 0 instances to maybe a dozen overnight...). It seems that it fixes itself as you state, but there's no fix that I know of on the instructor's end unlike the Repository Access Issue.

[Gchism94]

Just noting that this has definitely been getting worse, nearly exponentially. I think the easiest fix is adding learners to the GitHub Organization, as suggested above. Easier said than done if doing manually, but there are programmatic solutions:

• {ghclass}: Works well if you're an R user.

library(ghclass)

# Example
org_create_team("students")
org_add_member("student_github_username")
repo_create("hw1-template")
repo_copy_to_students(...)

• {PyGithub}: Seems to work well for Python, but you can also write scripts using the GitHub REST API

from github import Github
import requests

g = Github("TOKEN")
org = g.get_organization("your-org")

org.add_to_members("student_username")
repo = org.create_repo("assignment-student")
repo.add_to_collaborators("student_username")

Hope this is helpful. I also have written Python scripts to automate some processes from a CSV with student GitHub usernames if anyone is interested.

[djmandell]

I'm interested in seeing your scripts if you don't mind sharing.

[Gchism94]

I've standardized it all into an app, feel free to use any of it - https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/72283#discussioncomment-16783626

[sumotoh]

About half of the students in my class encountered the same issue.

I asked one of them to stay after class so we could check together, and we found that by going to
Settings → Organization → (where the list of assignment repositories is shown) → (Accept)
and clicking the “Accept” button, they were able to access the assignment repository.
(The wording may not be exact, since the student’s page was translated into their native language (Japanese).)

We haven’t tried this with everyone yet, but it’s a very simple step, so it might be worth trying.
If this works for you, please let me know.

[ProfMStoica]

Yes, this fix has been mentioned before, and it works if the Accept interface is present. Alternatively, the students have been sent an email to the email account linked to GitHub, and they can accept from there. The problem is the confusion this causes, but the students get the hang of it. If students' GitHub accounts are added to the organization as members, as is the case when they join a group assignment, the issue seems to disappear altogether. Next semester, I'll be trying to add them to the organization using a script, right after they attempt to join the first exercise.

[sumotoh]

Thank you for your replay..
This is my first time using GitHub Classroom to manage assignments, so not only the students but I was a bit confused by the situation.
For now, I'm relieved to know this works. I'll share this method with all students in nest week's class and have them try it.

[ProfMStoica]

It is a pity it worked so poorly this semester, as it was your first time. For a long time, it worked flawlessly, but starting in January, it has indeed been a pain. To be fair, GitHub has been having other problems in Feb and March, so hopefully they are resolved. Students are told right after accepting the assignment that the repository has been removed, which is very confusing. Some folks in this thread experienced a problem where email invites are not sent correctly or at all. I did not have that problem. Email invites have been reliably sent. However, for assignments, some students do not try to solve this problem in time, and the invite does expire after 7 days. If that happens, the invite must be manually reissued by removing and re-adding the student to the repository created when they accepted this assignment.

[adamwilliams2114-cpu]

That Classroom invite screen issue sounds like a backend enrollment sync glitch affecting a few accounts.
Feels similar to coordination delays you sometimes see in small pet relocation services india when tracking systems don’t align.

[sierrajulietromeo]

Just to chime in and say that I have encountered this issue this week for the first time ever.
Bit of a pain! It's a big shame that there seems to be no further development on what is a great tool (when it works!)

[Gchism94]

I've hit my breaking point with the problem this semester and built an app that makes it much quicker to reinvite students to their repos. Its a template, please feel free to use it, provide feedback, etc. Also, you can use the individual scripts to perform API calls if needed, so long as you have the required environmental variables. Currently, I run the app locally, but it could be launched via Render for student usage.

GitHub Classroom Reinvite App

Overview

This app provides a self-service way for students to restore write access to their GitHub Classroom repositories.

Students enter their GitHub username and select an assignment. The app then uses a GitHub App to re-grant write access to the corresponding repository, assuming it follows the standard naming convention:

{assignment_slug}-{github_username}

Key Features

• Student-facing web interface for requesting access
• Uses a GitHub App (not personal tokens) for secure permission management
• Instructor-managed whitelist of approved GitHub usernames
• Assignment list synced from GitHub Classroom
• Roster import via classroom_roster.csv
• Validation and batch utilities for instructors
• Audit logging of all reinvite attempts

Design

• FastAPI backend with minimal dependencies
• No database required (JSON-based configuration)
• Instructor scripts handle Classroom sync and roster import
• Runtime app does not depend on GitHub Classroom API

Use Case

GitHub Classroom invitations can expire or fail, leaving students without repository access. This app reduces manual reinvites by allowing students to restore access on demand while keeping control with the instructor.

[ProfMStoica]

I guess we now know why this issue was never fixed, and any support requests were met with standard Copilot answers. Perhaps this was known, but it is news to me. Not only will this issue never be fixed, but we now need to look elsewhere.

If this is also news to you, here is the announcement:
https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/196615

[hotdogontology]

Super disappointed to hear that they are sunsetting Classroom, but at least they aren’t leaving us in the lurch in the middle of the year like Replit did.

…

On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 5:24 PM Magdin Stoica ***@***.***> wrote: I guess we now know why this issue was never fixed, and any support requests were met with standard Copilot answers. Perhaps this was known, but it is news to me. Not only will this issue never be fixed, but we now need to look elsewhere. #196615 — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#72283?email_source=notifications&email_token=AHIEMODTXEUBY452EBFJFBT44YDSFA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCNZQGY3TMNRUUZZGKYLTN5XKOY3PNVWWK3TUUVSXMZLOOSWGM33PORSXEX3DNRUWG2Y#discussioncomment-17067664>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AHIEMOCK6YV7YYRIRVEU5WT44YDSFAVCNFSM6AAAAACFHKMTNCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTOMBWG43DMNA> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[sierrajulietromeo]

Thought this was coming. At least the Classroom 50 option seems promising! On 27 May 2026, at 01:26, Taylor Belcher ***@***.***> wrote: Super disappointed to hear that they are sunsetting Classroom, but at least they aren’t leaving us in the lurch in the middle of the year like Replit did.

On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 5:24 PM Magdin Stoica ***@***.***> wrote: I guess we now know why this issue was never fixed, and any support requests were met with standard Copilot answers. Perhaps this was known, but it is news to me. Not only will this issue never be fixed, but we now need to look elsewhere. #196615 — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#72283?email_source=notifications&email_token=AHIEMODTXEUBY452EBFJFBT44YDSFA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCNZQGY3TMNRUUZZGKYLTN5XKOY3PNVWWK3TUUVSXMZLOOSWGM33PORSXEX3DNRUWG2Y#discussioncomment-17067664>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AHIEMOCK6YV7YYRIRVEU5WT44YDSFAVCNFSM6AAAAACFHKMTNCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTOMBWG43DMNA> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

—Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS or Android. You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>