How to fix "unable to merge unrelated histories"?

Question

GitHub

I'm using github desctop ( https://desktop.github.com ) while developing an application with a few other people, and for some reason, when I try to merge two branches into one, the "unable to merge unrelated histories" error is displayed for one of the target branches.

What could be the problem?

Answer 1

The reason is stated in the post. You are trying to merge branches that do not have a common history. What for?
I can offer several solutions.
1. Instead of merge, use the rebase command. This will rebuild the merged branch on top of the base branch.
2. The merge command has an option to ignore this error: The last option is used when merging the histories of two projects that started life independently. --allow-unrelated-histories