GhostDriver throwing stale exception "Element does not exist in cache" when executing javascript on existing element

Question

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Having problems with stale exception, GhostDriver is bubbling something was changed sice last execution.
On this {Random “Element is no longer attached to the DOM” StaleElementReferenceException} question, that have more than 16k views, someone is telling about race conditions and things changing on test time but my code execute so fast that i cant believe something was changed.
Im changing nothing, all code execute fast, maybe the page itself is changing on the small time frame of test fragment execution.
The myLibWorks.findElements(.. is ok and returning elements, its using FluentWait<SearchContext> then the element is available when method return.
It throws:

Element does not exist in cache

after when i try execute javascript on element.
Here is the simplified fragment of my Java code:

by = getBy_A001();  
List<WebElement> welCollecN1 = myLibWorks.findElements(driver, timeOutInSeconds, pollingForSecond, by);  
if (welCollecN1 != null) {  
    WebElement wel01 = welCollecN1.iterator().next();  
    if(wel01 != null)  
    {  
        by = getBy_A002();  
        List<WebElement> welCollecN2 = myLibWorks.findElements(wel01, timeOutInSeconds, pollingForSecond, by);  
        if (welCollecN2 != null) {  
            WebElement wel02 = welCollecN2.iterator().next();  
            if(wel02 != null)  
            {  
                String value = null;  
                value = elm.getText();  
                if(value.length() == 0) {  
                    //-------------------------------------------------  
                    // REACH here then i think its ok above, this works almost of time too  
                    // THIS line throws "Element does not exist in cache"  
                    value = (String) ((JavascriptExecutor) driver).executeScript(driver, "return arguments[0].innerHTML", wel02);   // <<== ERROR  
                    //-------------------------------------------------  
                }  
            }  
        }  
    }  
}  

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Element does not exist in cache caused by Request => {"headers":{"Accept":"application/json, image/png","Connection":"Keep-Alive","Content-Length":"84","Content-Type":"application/json; charset=utf-8","Host":"127.0.0.1:4444"},"httpVersion":"1.1","method":"POST","post":"{\"args\":[{\"ELEMENT\":\":wdc:1371656598440\"}],\"script\":\"return arguments[0].innerHTML\"}","url":"/execute","urlParsed":{"anchor":"","query":"","file":"execute","directory":"/","path":"/execute","relative":"/execute","port":"","host":"","password":"","user":"","userInfo":"","authority":"","protocol":"","source":"/execute","queryKey":{},"chunks":["execute"]},"urlOriginal":"/session/efc7cf60-d8f6-11e2-9f07-192e7e451712/execute"} Command duration or timeout: 736 milliseconds For documentation on this error, please visit: http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/stale_element_reference.html Build info: version: '2.32.0', revision: '6c40c18', time: '2013-04-09 17:22:56' System info: os.name: 'Linux', os.arch: 'i386', os.version: '3.8.0-19-generic', java.version: '1.7.0_21' Session ID: efc7cf60-d8f6-11e2-9f07-192e7e451712 Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver Capabilities [{platform=LINUX, acceptSslCerts=false, javascriptEnabled=true, browserName=phantomjs, rotatable=false, driverVersion=1.0.3, locationContextEnabled=false, version=1.9.0, cssSelectorsEnabled=true, databaseEnabled=false, handlesAlerts=false, browserConnectionEnabled=false, proxy={proxyType=direct}, nativeEvents=true, webStorageEnabled=false, driverName=ghostdriver, applicationCacheEnabled=false, takesScreenshot=true}]} =======

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The error looks bubbling from here : https://code.google.com/p/phantomjs/source/browse/src/ghostdriver/third_party/webdriver-atoms/deps.js?r=78d90641df12d10b1f30b2bb4c08b92d6aff5f9b

/**  
 * Retrieves an element from the cache. Will verify that the element is
 * still attached to the DOM before returning.
 * @param {string} key The element's key in the cache.
 * @param {Document=} opt_doc The document whose cache to retrieve the element
 *     from. Defaults to the current document.
 * @return {Element|Window} The cached element.
 */
bot.inject.cache.getElement = function(key, opt_doc) {
  key = decodeURIComponent(key);
  var doc = opt_doc || document;
  var cache = bot.inject.cache.getCache_(doc);
  if (!goog.object.containsKey(cache, key)) {
    // Throw STALE_ELEMENT_REFERENCE instead of NO_SUCH_ELEMENT since the
    // key may have been defined by a prior document's cache.
    throw new bot.Error(bot.ErrorCode.STALE_ELEMENT_REFERENCE,
        'Element does not exist in cache');
  }

  var el = cache[key];

  // If this is a Window check if it's closed
  if (goog.object.containsKey(el, 'setInterval')) {
    if (el.closed) {
      delete cache[key];
      throw new bot.Error(bot.ErrorCode.NO_SUCH_WINDOW,
          'Window has been closed.');
    }
    return el;
  }

  // Make sure the element is still attached to the DOM before returning.
  var node = el;
  while (node) {
    if (node == doc.documentElement) {
      return el;
    }
    node = node.parentNode;
  }
  delete cache[key];
  throw new bot.Error(bot.ErrorCode.STALE_ELEMENT_REFERENCE,
      'Element is no longer attached to the DOM');
};

---

Answer 1

I was having the same problem when including GhostDriver dependency and running tests with Chrome Driver. Adding this two addtional dependencies to the pom.xml solved the problem:

```

<dependency>
        <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
        <artifactId>selenium-remote-driver</artifactId>
        <version>2.53.0</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
        <artifactId>selenium-server</artifactId>
        <version>2.53.0</version>
    </dependency>

```

Don't forget to replace the selenium version with the one you are using.

Hope it helps!