Reuse of branch name creates a problem when attaching an issue to that branch

[Gaia-Julien]

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Hi,

I encounter a strange behaviour when I try to attach an issue to a branch.

1. I create a branch that we will call 'Billy', it lives its own life
2. Once development is complete, I merge with the master branch, and the branch 'Billy' is deleted
3. Several weeks later, I create a new branch with the same name, 'Billy’, as the one deleted earlier
4. It is impossible to attach an issue to the new 'Billy' branch; there seems to be confusion between the former deleted branch and the new branch with the same name

Is this normal?

Thank you in advance.

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[0xDynamic]

When a branch is deleted, GitHub removes the ref, but it may still keep metadata about the old branch (past PRs, issue associations, and internal caches).
If you later create a new branch with the same name, GitHub sometimes confuses the new branch with the old one and refuses to attach issues to it.

So yes... what you’re seeing is effectively a GitHub bug / caching problem.

Here's my workarounds that usually fix it:

1. Make any push to the new branch (even an empty commit) to force metadata refresh.
2. Rename the branch once (Billy → Billy2 → Billy) — this clears old associations.
3. Open a new PR from the branch, which rebuilds backend metadata.
4. Remove any lingering “Development → Branch” association on the issue sidebar.

If none of that works, using a new branch name will confirm it’s a metadata conflict.

Hope that clarifies things for you.