When creating a branch, origin/branch is not created

Question

The ever famous, "It used to work, but now it doesn't" question. When I create a new branch, only the local branch gets created. The origin/branch is not created. Attempts to push changes to origin/branch, in the hopes that action will create the branch on origin, result in the "Pushing" dialog's progress bar spinning and spinning for what appears to be an eternity (more than two hours on one test).

What changed? I changed my password on our domain, though I have some doubt that is the issue since the repository on GitHub.com is publicly accessible. And someone created a "live" branch on the repository, and a GitHub JSON configuration file in the process (.openpublishing.publish.config.json  had an email address added to the "notification_subscribers", and "branches_to_filter" changed from ["live"] to [""]).

I'm certainly no expert on Git or GitHub, but since I have some changes that need to be pushed/pulled into the master branch, I would appreciate any help you could provide. And even with my afore-mentioned inexperience, I somehow have a feeling the issue may be in my SourceTree configuration more than in the changes mentioned above. I'll be glad to do whatever I can to get this working again (share config files, run tests, give screenshots, etc).

Thank you.

Adding to this in response to Tim Crall's response:

Alas, even though "Track" is checked, I do not receive an error message.

Push.png

And the result is the same (no error message, no update, and the progress bar spinning eternally) regardless of whether the Track checkbox is checked, unchecked, or undefined:

Checked:

Track Checked.png

Unchecked:

Track check cleared.png

Undefined:

Track undefined check Full Output.png

What else can I do to try to fix this?

Track check cleared.png

Track undefined check Full Output.png

Track Checked.png

Push.png

Roy Harper · Answer

At this point, I would welcome an error message almost as much as success. Alas, even though "Track" is checked, I do not receive an error message.

Push.png

I tried again, this time unchecking "Track" (thus putting Track into the "undefined" state), and it spins and spins without success or error. Here is the "Show Full Output" when Track has the undefined check:

Track undefined check Full Output.png

Here is the output when the Track check is cleared:

Track check cleared.png

And, for completeness, here is the output when Track is checked:

Track Checked.png

Are there any other experiments you'd like me to attempt?

Track Checked.png

Track check cleared.png

Track Unchecked Full Output.png

Push.png

Track undefined check Full Output.png

Tim Crall1 · Answer

This is definitely unusual behavior, because it should either create the remote branch or give you an error message.

Do you have the checkbox for "track" checked in your push screen?  If so, it should create the remote branch when you push.  If unchecked, it should give you an error message.  In no case should it just spin for hours.

Screen Shot 2016-06-13 at 9.57.31 AM.png