Getting Started Feature Tour Fails

Support
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1

Hello
I’m brand new to netlify and static sites etc. To learn how to do anything with netlify, I wanted to go through the getting started demo site process before trying to do anything with a site I’ve created. I installed/signed up for everything in the list, and then hit the Deploy to Netlify button, it connects to github and starts the process, but then fails. Not a great start to seeing if Netlify is worth using… I tried deleting that site and using the deploy to netlify button on the features tour github repo, but got the same result. It creates a repo on my github, but there’s no files in it. Since I’m new and have never done any of this before I have no idea what could be happening or why or how to test it against a different repo since I can’t even get through the getting started demo :grimacing:. I’ve searched the forums, but came up with nothing. Here’s all the info I can think to include, let me know if there’s anything else I can include. Any help is appreciated.

Netlify site: repeated-failure.netlify.app/

Git version: 2.45.1.windows.1

— I’m not sure if it’s relevant, but wanted to mention since the error log mentions “master”, in the settings when I installed Git I set it to use “main” instead of master.

Node version: v20.12.2

Netlify-cli/17.23.8 win32-x64 node-v20.12.2

Github name: Graywaren

Repo link: https://github.com/Graywaren/netlify-feature-tour

Here’s the log for the initial try:

7:19:48 PM: build-image version: 3d3c7e8b4321e2c1a54a2c4584fb46ba742b1630 (focal)
7:19:48 PM: buildbot version: 588d3e99baf403f31620480ed78c765f2e21ff1d
7:19:48 PM: Building without cache
7:19:48 PM: Starting to prepare the repo for build
7:19:49 PM: Failed during stage 'preparing repo': git ref refs/heads/master does not exist
7:19:49 PM: git ref refs/heads/master does not exist or you do not have permission
7:19:49 PM: Did you change the name of your production branch? Don't forget to update your settings: https://docs.netlify.com/site-deploys/overview/#branches-and-deploys
7:19:49 PM: Failing build: Failed to prepare repo

Here’s the log for when I retried with clear cache

7:16:35 PM: build-image version: 3d3c7e8b4321e2c1a54a2c4584fb46ba742b1630 (focal)

7:16:35 PM: buildbot version: 588d3e99baf403f31620480ed78c765f2e21ff1d

7:16:35 PM: Fetching cached dependencies

7:16:35 PM: Failed to fetch cache, continuing with build

7:16:35 PM: Starting to prepare the repo for build

7:16:36 PM: Failed during stage 'preparing repo': git ref refs/heads/master does not exist

7:16:36 PM: git ref refs/heads/master does not exist or you do not have permission

7:16:36 PM: Did you change the name of your production branch? Don't forget to update your settings: https://docs.netlify.com/site-deploys/overview/#branches-and-deploys

7:16:36 PM: Failing build: Failed to prepare repo
2

Have you checked out: [Support Guide] "...does not exist or you do not have permission" with failing builds

3

I’ve read it but it doesn’t help and I don’t think it actually applies. It’s not a repo I’ve created, it’s a repo that Netlify is creating. So, if it’s failing because it isn’t set up properly, it’s the tutorial that’s failing to set it up correctly. I don’t have other website repos, I’ve never deployed anything, I signed up and installed the things directly before trying this. I’ve done nothing besides click the button in the docs and authorize Netlify for my github over and over. I haven’t changed any settings, there’s been no instructions to set any settings in anything to something specific, just install these things then push the button to start. It is failing at page 1 step 1 of the tutorial: Netlify is failing to clone it’s own repo to my github.

There’s no instructions in the support guide post beyond here’s the button push it, but I tried anyway. However, since the repo doesn’t have any branches, since it fails to create properly and therefore it doesn’t have any files, I can’t complete the process. Thinking maybe “fix the linkage” meant some sort of permissions with github that would be fixed by starting, even if it can’t complete that relinking process, I tried the retry deploy again, which just failed. Then I deleted that site and repo and tried the entire tour process over again. Once again failed at the same point with the same error.

4

I was able to deploy a different repo via setting up a new site, so it does appear that your tutorial is broken. Really was hoping the tutorial would work and be helpful since your documentation is unfriendly to absolute beginners and those not using a framework and the help guides often don’t contain reference or instruction to the issues that were the reason they were pointed towards to begin with. :upside_down_face: I’m happy to help debug what’s wrong with your tutorial repo if you want to give any instructions on what to do or check.

5

I can see you also sent feedback to the docs team so this is currently being investigated.