Can not see Update Branch in PR after upgrading to team plan

[piyushantarx]

Why are you starting this discussion?

Question

What GitHub Actions topic or product is this about?

Misc

Discussion Details

Till I was on free plan, I see Update Branch button before merging the PR if feature branch is not synced with master.
After updating to team plan, I applied some basic branch protection rule, after that I don't see Update Branch button even if feature branch is few commits behind master.
Any idea to fix this issue.

[sahildubey11]

Steps to fix (do these in order)

1. Confirm the simple prerequisites

Open the PR and confirm there are no merge conflicts (GitHub will say if conflicts exist). If conflicts exist you must resolve locally or in the fork. (If conflicts exist, Update branch will not be offered.)
GitHub Docs

2. Check branch protection rules

Settings → Branches → edit the protection rule for the PR/head branch and check:

Is “Restrict who can push to matching branches” enabled? If yes, either add the user/team that needs to push or disable that restriction so GitHub can perform the update.

Is the HEAD branch itself protected? (If so, protected HEAD can block updates from the UI.)
GitHub Docs

3. If PR is from a fork

Ask the PR author to enable “Allow edits from maintainers” on the PR (there’s a checkbox on the PR page). Without it, maintainers cannot push to the fork and Update branch won’t be available.
GitHub Docs

4. Enable “Always suggest updating pull request branches” (optional / recommended)

Repo → Settings → Pull requests (or the Pull requests subsection in repo settings). Turn on Always suggest updating pull request branches — this makes the Update button available whenever the head branch is behind (subject to push/permission rules above). If you prefer, you can instead require “branches to be up to date before merging” in branch protection which also triggers the button.
GitHub Docs
+1

5. Workarounds

If you don’t want to change protection rules, update the branch locally: git checkout feature && git fetch origin && git rebase origin/main (or merge), resolve conflicts, then git push (force-push only if you rebased and you have permission).

Or have a user with push rights push the merged/rebased result.

Quick checklist you can run through now

PR has no conflicts (check PR page)

Head branch is not protected / or push restrictions allow the updater

If PR is from a fork → Allow edits from maintainers is checked

Consider enabling Always suggest updating pull request branches in repo settings (or enable “Require branches to be up to date before merging” in branch protection)