Lost Repository #3970495

[AdminKawldron]

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Hi GitHub Community,

I'm in a desperate situation and hoping someone can help or point me to the right support channel.

Timeline:

Friday (Dec 20): I upgraded my GitHub account to access additional features
Saturday (Dec 21): Attempting to fix a broken integration, I accidentally deleted my organization, which cascaded and deleted my repository
What happened:

I had a functioning repository connected to Lovable (a no-code platform)
I created a GitHub organization to access additional features and transferred my repository into it
This broke the connection between Lovable and GitHub - publishing stopped working
To fix this, I tried to leave the organization, but as the only member, I couldn't
The only option was to delete the organization - which deleted my repository along with it

Current state:

The Deleted Repositories page (github.com/settings/repositories) shows nothing - the repo doesn't appear there
I've created a new empty repo with the same name (which may be blocking restoration)
The application is still running in production (the deployed version works), but I have no source code
I've had to upgrade my GitHub account again after recreating it

What I need:

The repository that was inside the deleted organization. Even if the organization is gone, I'm hoping the repository data is still recoverable within the 90-day retention window.

Details for support:

GitHub username: AdminKawldron
Deleted organization name: KawldronJay
Deletion date: December 19, 2025

I'm a solo founder building a B2B SaaS product. This repository contains months of work. I'm currently facing the prospect of rebuilding from scratch, which would be devastating.

Has anyone successfully recovered a repository that was deleted via organization deletion? Is there a way to escalate this to GitHub Support?

Thank you for any guidance.

[AnuragDubey007]

"Hi @AdminKawldron,

I understand how stressful this is, especially as a solo founder. Because the repository was deleted as part of an Organization deletion, it behaves differently than a standard repository deletion, which is why it isn't appearing in your personal 'Deleted Repositories' settings.

Here is the exact path to recovery:

Do Not Delete the New Repo Yet: While the new repository with the same name might cause a naming conflict during restoration, keep it for now until Support instructs otherwise. GitHub Support can usually 'force restore' a deleted object over an existing one or rename the deleted one during recovery.

Contact GitHub Support Immediately (Tickets): Since you mentioned you upgraded your account again, you likely have access to Priority Support. Go to GitHub Support and open a ticket under 'Account or permanent data deletion'.

Provide the Metadata: In your ticket, include exactly what you provided here:

Organization Name: KawldronJay

Repo Name: [Insert Name]

Approximate Time of Deletion: Dec 19/21.

The 30-Day Window: GitHub typically retains data for 30 days (not 90) for deleted organizations. Since this happened 48 hours ago, your data is almost certainly still on their servers. They can often restore the entire organization or move the orphaned repository back to your personal account.

Recovery via 'Lovable' (Last Resort): Since the production app is still running, contact Lovable support as well. Even if the 'connection' is broken, they may have a cached version of the last successful deployment's source code on their build servers.

GitHub Support is the only entity with the database permissions to undo an Organization purge, but they are generally very successful at it if contacted within the first few days."

[AdminKawldron]

Thank for this note. I really appreciate the response and validation of my issue. However, I am AdminKawldon. And I'm KawldronJay. My plea is to GitHub Support.

[AdminKawldron]

"Hi @AdminKawldron,

I understand how stressful this is, especially as a solo founder. Because the repository was deleted as part of an Organization deletion, it behaves differently than a standard repository deletion, which is why it isn't appearing in your personal 'Deleted Repositories' settings.

Here is the exact path to recovery:

Do Not Delete the New Repo Yet: While the new repository with the same name might cause a naming conflict during restoration, keep it for now until Support instructs otherwise. GitHub Support can usually 'force restore' a deleted object over an existing one or rename the deleted one during recovery.

Contact GitHub Support Immediately (Tickets): Since you mentioned you upgraded your account again, you likely have access to Priority Support. Go to GitHub Support and open a ticket under 'Account or permanent data deletion'.

Provide the Metadata: In your ticket, include exactly what you provided here:

Organization Name: KawldronJay

Repo Name: [Insert Name]

Approximate Time of Deletion: Dec 19/21.

The 30-Day Window: GitHub typically retains data for 30 days (not 90) for deleted organizations. Since this happened 48 hours ago, your data is almost certainly still on their servers. They can often restore the entire organization or move the orphaned repository back to your personal account.

Recovery via 'Lovable' (Last Resort): Since the production app is still running, contact Lovable support as well. Even if the 'connection' is broken, they may have a cached version of the last successful deployment's source code on their build servers.

GitHub Support is the only entity with the database permissions to undo an Organization purge, but they are generally very successful at it if contacted within the first few days."

Hey, mate... It's been three days and I've not heard from GitHub (despite two upgrades), should I be worried?

[AdminKawldron]

Is anyone able to help? It's 10 days since I raised the ticket, and I'm on Pro. Not one response from GitHub...

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