Message: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document PYTHON selenium

Question

I am trying to fetch episodes link from website. So i need to enter to the links and fetch the information from episodes for. Its working in 2-3 episodes then crashing with error that wrotted in the bottom. I tried to raise the time sleep but its still crashing.

Error :

selenium.common.exceptions.StaleElementReferenceException: Message: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document

import time
import datetime
import random
import string
import json
import requests
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
from urllib.request import urlopen
 
 
import urllib.request
def send_imdb(id):
    try:
        r = requests.get('http://sdarot.bnlstudio.com/import.php?id=%s' % (id))
        json = r.json()
        if json['status'] == "success":
            return json['id']
    except:
        return("Err")
 
links = []
seasons = [] 
link = "http://www.tvil.me/"

chrome_options = Options()
chrome_options.add_extension('gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom.crx')

driver = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=chrome_options) 
driver.get(link)
#Getting Posts links and split them
page_right = driver.find_element_by_id("page-right")
posts = page_right.find_elements_by_xpath("//div[@class='index-episode-caption']/a")
for element in posts:
    href = element.get_attribute("href")
    splited = href.split("/")
    url = "%s//%s/view/%s/1/1/v/%s" % (splited[0], splited[2], splited[4], splited[8])
    links.append(url)
    ##print(url)
#Entering posts and gets IMDB ID
E = 0;
for link in links:
    driver.get(link)
    time.sleep(2)
    imdb_q = driver.find_element_by_xpath("//div[@id='view-trailer-imdb']/a")
    imdb = imdb_q.get_attribute("href")
    imdb_id = imdb.split("/")[4]
    post_id = send_imdb(imdb_id)
    print("Post_ID: %s" % (post_id))
    seasons_num = driver.find_elements_by_xpath("//*[contains(@id, 'change-season-')]/a")
    total_seasons_num = len(seasons_num)
  
    for i in range(1, total_seasons_num):
        print("Season: %i" % (i))
        season = driver.find_element_by_css_selector("#change-season-{num} a".format(num=i))
        season.click()
        episodes = driver.find_elements_by_xpath("//*[contains(@id, 'change-episode-')]/a")
 
        for episode in episodes:
            E += 1
            print("Episode: %i" % (E))
            time.sleep(3)
            episode.click() # Break point
            time.sleep(3)

Possible duplicate of [StaleElementReference Exception in PageFactory](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44838538/staleelementreference-exception-in-pagefactory) — undetected Selenium, May 02 '18 at 12:14
@DebanjanB They did'nt find an answer can you please stop to mark it as duplicate ? — kaki, May 02 '18 at 12:20
Read about how what causes a Stale Element Exception and how to overcome it — demouser123, May 02 '18 at 12:41

Magesh · Answer 1 · 2018-05-03T06:33:16.687

When the element is not attached to the DOM, stale element exception occurs. Try finding the element again after stale element exception.

Consider clicking an element will refresh the page.
Example:

 WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.Id("refreshButton"));
 element.Click(); //page will be refreshed after clicking this button
 element.Click(); //stale element exception will throw

Now, if you perform any action(click,senkeys,etc) on the element, it will throw StaleElementException because it reference is lost(page has been refreshed)

To overcome this, find that element again after the page has refreshed.Like,

 WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.Id("refreshButton"));
 element.Click(); //page will be refreshed after clicking this button

 element = driver.findElement(By.Id("refreshButton"));
 element.Click();

I read the edit but in my situation its in for... Search in my code ** for episode in episodes: 8* its there — kaki, May 03 '18 at 08:36

Message: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document PYTHON selenium

1 Answers1