Contributions in public repositories made from work email needs to be transferred to personal email

[siddharth0815]

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Hello team,
I had created github account with my work email and made some open source contributions to some public repositories. When i leave the company those contributions will not be under my name anymore, is there a way I can shift those to my personal account
I have tried adding work email to my primary account but it says "email already in use"
Please help here

[tmilost]

If you contributed to open source projects using a work email and a separate GitHub account, those contributions are associated with that account’s identity. Here’s what you can do:

1. Email Ownership & Contributions:
   GitHub associates contributions with the email address in your commit history. If your work email is tied to a different account, you cannot add it to your personal account while it's still associated elsewhere.

2. Transferring Contributions:

   • Option 1: Change Commit Email
     If you still have access to your work account, you can update your commits by rewriting history with your personal email. This is complex and not recommended for public/shared repositories.
   • Option 2: Add Work Email to Personal Account
     You can add your work email to your personal GitHub account—but only if it’s not already used by another account. You’d need to remove it from your work account first.
     Steps:
     • Log into your work GitHub account
     • Remove the work email from that account
     • Add the work email to your personal account
     • Your contributions (commits made with that email) will appear on your personal profile.
   • Option 3: Contact GitHub Support
     If you have left the company and no longer have access to the work account, reach out to GitHub Support with details. They may be able to help reassign historical contributions in special cases.

3. What You Cannot Do:

   • There is no automatic way to "transfer" contributions between accounts.
   • You cannot add an email to more than one GitHub account at the same time.

Summary:
Remove the work email from your old account, then add it to your personal account. Contributions will reflect under your personal account for commits made with that email. If you can’t access the work account, contact GitHub Support for help.

[siddharth0815]

Thanks for suggestion @tmilost
I cannot see commit history appearing on my personal account's contribution activity , does it take some time to reflect?
Also i was concerned if later that email account gets deactivated, will commits be linked to primary email?

[tmilost]

Hi,
Maybe you need to wait some time, up to 24h, just don't remove the email from settings

1. Commit history not appearing in contribution activity:
   Yes, sometimes it can take a short while for your commit history to show up in your contribution graph on your personal GitHub account. Usually, it updates within a few minutes, but in some cases, it may take up to 24 hours. Make sure that:

   • Your commits are made with an email address associated with your GitHub account.
   • The commits are made to the default branch (often main or master), or to a branch that is merged into the default branch.
   • The repository is not a fork, or if it is, contributions are only counted if you open a pull request and it’s merged.

2. If your email account gets deactivated:
   GitHub associates commits with your account based on the email address set in each commit. If the email address used in the commit is still associated with your GitHub account (even if it’s no longer your primary or active email), the contributions will remain linked to your GitHub profile.

   • If you remove the email address from your GitHub account, those commits will no longer count toward your contributions.
   • To ensure your contributions remain attributed to you, keep all commit email addresses added to your GitHub account, even if the original email is deactivated.

[siddharth0815]

1 . crossplane/function-sdk-go#229 this is the pull request opened via fork, and it is merged so I don't see any issue here, ideally should get reflected post 24 hrs right?
2. got it!

[tmilost]

1. yes
2. 👍

[siddharth0815]

@tmilost i checked my contributions are still not reflecting in personal account. Can I do anything for it?

[adriel03-dp]

GitHub doesn’t let you just move contributions from one account to another. Since your work email is tied to your old account, you can’t add it to your personal account right away.

The easiest way is to change the email on your work account to something else so your work email becomes free. Then add that email to your personal account. GitHub will then link your past commits to your personal account automatically. You could mess with rewriting old commits, but honestly, that’s more hassle than it’s worth. Changing the email is much simpler and keeps everything tied to you.