I Forked a Repo but Only Got the `main` Branch - Here's What I Did

So here's what happened...

I forked a project on GitHub because I wanted to contribute to one of its features.

But when I opened my fork - boom 💥 - only the main branch was there. All the other branches from the original repo? Gone.

At first, I thought something went wrong with the fork. But nope - that’s just how GitHub works.

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🤔 The Problem

When you fork a repo on GitHub, it only brings the default branch (usually main or master).

It does not copy over the other branches.

If the original repo had branches like:

• feature/login
• bugfix/style
• refactor/api

You won’t see them in your fork.

But don't worry - they’re still there, just not in your copy… yet.

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✅ The Solution

Here’s how I pulled the missing branches into my fork:

1. I added the original repo as a remote

git remote add upstream https://github.com/original-user/original-repo.git

Replace that URL with the actual repo you forked from.

2. Then I fetched all the branches from the original repo

git fetch upstream

Now I could see all the remote branches by running:

git branch -r

I saw branches like:

upstream/feature/login
upstream/bugfix/style

3. I checked out the one I wanted

Let’s say I needed the feature/login branch:

git checkout -b feature/login upstream/feature/login

Boom - now I had that branch locally.

4. (Optional) I pushed it to my fork on GitHub

If I wanted to work on it and push it to my forked repo:

git push origin feature/login

Now it exists on my GitHub too.

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🎉 Problem Solved!

So if you ever fork a repo and wonder,

"Where are the other branches?"

They’re not missing - you just need to fetch them manually.

Hope this helps someone out there! ✌️

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