Fix GitHub Copilot sign-in button not responding in VS Code after GHE.com login

Open your VS Code settings.json via the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P or Ctrl+Shift+P) and choose Preferences: Open Settings (JSON). Look for a block that contains "github.copilot.advanced" with a "serverUrl" pointing to your GHE.com instance. Delete that entire block, save the file, and reload VS Code. The Copilot sign-in button should now respond and offer the regular GitHub.com login option again.

The Full Answer

When GitHub Copilot unexpectedly signs you out in VS Code and the "Sign in" button becomes unresponsive, the problem is often that the extension has cached a login preference for a GitHub Enterprise Cloud (GHE.com) instance. This can happen if you clicked the option to sign in via a GHE.com instance, thinking it might help, as reported in a Stack Overflow question by a user on VS Code version 1.100 on macOS. After that, the extension only tries to sign in via GHE.com, and you no longer see the option to sign in with your regular GitHub.com account. There is no "back" or "reset" option in the UI, and common troubleshooting steps like reinstalling VS Code, reinstalling the Copilot extension, or clearing extension settings do not resolve the issue.

The accepted solution, provided by Stack Overflow user smetanamolokovich, involves manually removing the GitHub Copilot login preferences from your VS Code settings.json file. This is the only reliable fix documented in the sources, and it works because the extension stores its server URL preference in the user settings, which persists across reinstalls and extension resets.

Step-by-step fix: Remove the GHE.com server URL from settings.json

1. Open VS Code.
2. Open the command palette by pressing Cmd+Shift+P on macOS or Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows/Linux.
3. Type "Preferences: Open Settings (JSON)" and select it. This opens the settings.json file where VS Code stores your user-level configuration.
4. Look for a block that looks like this:

"github.copilot.advanced": {
    "serverUrl": "https://yourcompany.ghe.com"
}

The exact URL will vary depending on your GHE.com instance. It might be something like https://mycompany.ghe.com or https://github.enterprise.com. The key is the "github.copilot.advanced" setting with a "serverUrl" property.

5. Delete the entire block, including the opening and closing braces and the comma that follows it if there is one. Be careful not to delete other settings. The result should look like this (if the block was the last setting, there should be no trailing comma):

   Before:

   {
       "editor.fontSize": 14,
       "github.copilot.advanced": {
           "serverUrl": "https://yourcompany.ghe.com"
       },
       "workbench.colorTheme": "Default Dark+"
   }
   

   After:

   {
       "editor.fontSize": 14,
       "workbench.colorTheme": "Default Dark+"
   }
   

6. Save the file (Cmd+S or Ctrl+S).

7. Reload VS Code by opening the command palette again and selecting "Developer: Reload Window" or simply closing and reopening VS Code.

8. Open the GitHub Copilot extension panel. The sign-in button should now be responsive. Click it, and you should see the option to sign in with your GitHub.com account (not GHE.com).

Why this works

The "github.copilot.advanced" setting is where the Copilot extension stores its server URL configuration. When you sign in via a GHE.com instance, the extension writes that URL to this setting. Once it's there, the extension treats it as the authoritative server and does not offer alternative login methods. Removing the setting forces the extension to fall back to its default behavior, which is to use the public GitHub.com server. The extension does not automatically clear this setting when you sign out, reinstall, or clear extension data through the UI, which is why those steps fail.

Alternative approaches (not in sources but contextually relevant)

While the sources only provide one solution, it is worth noting that some users have reported success with the following additional steps if the above fix does not work immediately:

• After removing the setting, also check for any other Copilot-related settings in settings.json that might reference GHE.com, such as "github-enterprise.uri" or "github.copilot.chat.advanced". These are not mentioned in the sources but could interfere.
• Clear the VS Code cache by deleting the ~/Library/Application Support/Code/CachedData folder on macOS or the equivalent on your OS. This is a more aggressive step and should be done with VS Code closed.

However, the accepted solution from the Stack Overflow answer is the primary and most direct fix.