How do I fix 'fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories' in git?

How it was checked: Reproduced the error between two independent repos; --allow-unrelated-histories merged both trees.

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Fix

It happens when two branches share no common commit, e.g. a new local repo and a remote created with its own README. Merge once with: git pull origin main --allow-unrelated-histories (or git merge --allow-unrelated-histories <branch>). Resolve any conflicts, commit, then push. Only do this when the histories really should be combined; if you cloned the wrong remote, fix the remote instead.

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