If you have a private fork of a private repository and the parent repository is made public, your private repository is detached from the parent and you will become financially responsible for it. If you aren't signed up for a paid plan or if you don't have room in your current plan for another private repository, the repository will be locked. This means that the repository cannot be accessed until you upgrade your plan or the repository is made public. We will not make your locked repository public, nor will we automatically delete it. However, GitHub does reserve the right to delete content from locked repositories from our active servers after a period of nonpayment.
Tip: Repositories are never made public nor automatically deleted when they are locked.
Unlocking the repository
Upgrading to a paid plan that has room for the private repository will automatically unlock it. We will only charge you for time moving forward; we do not ask you to pay for the time lapsed in locked mode. For more information on upgrading your account, see the following articles:
- Upgrading your personal account from free to a paid account
- Upgrading your organization account from free to a paid account
Alternatively, you can change a locked private repository to a public one at any time. This will restore your access, but be warned - everyone can access public repositories.
If you need short-term access to a locked repository to move it off of the account, please contact GitHub support.
