Unable to locate elements in Selenium (Python)

Question

I tried to use Selenium with Chrome, but I was unable to find elements on the page. I tried it with link text, XPath, and full XPath, but there was just one error and it wasn't clicking on the element.

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
driver= webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("https://www.youtube.com/")
print(driver.title)
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*[@id='search']").click()

Output:

 UserWarning: find_element_by_* commands are deprecated. Please use find_element() instead
  warnings.warn("find_element_by_* commands are deprecated. Please use find_element() instead")

I'm using ChromeDriver 81.0.4044.69 and version 81.0.4044.113 of the browser.

@Pete The first code you gave worked fine but I am still getting the error. — Amaan001, Apr 20 '20 at 07:43
i am asking you web driver not chrome driver and secondly find_element_by_* should not deprecated if you use latest stable version 3.141.59 of webdriver (https://www.selenium.dev/downloads/) — SeleniumUser, Apr 20 '20 at 08:12
@DipakBachhav I used the command: from selenium import webdriverprint, print ("Selenium webdriver Version: %s" % (webdriver.__version__)) And the version was: 4.0.0a5 — Amaan001, Apr 20 '20 at 09:00
@DipakBachhav I downgraded the driver to 3.141.59 and it is working fine now, thank you 3000. — Amaan001, Apr 20 '20 at 10:59

score 13 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 13 '22 at 19:20

This error message...

 UserWarning: find_element_by_* commands are deprecated. Please use find_element() instead
  warnings.warn("find_element_by_* commands are deprecated. Please use find_element() instead")

...implies that the find_element_by_* commands are now associated with a deprecation warning in the latest Selenium Python libraries.

This change is in line with the Selenium 4 Release Candidate 1 changelog which mentions:

Specify that the "find_element_by_* ..." warning is a deprecation warning (#9700)

Solution

Instead of find_element_by_* you have to use find_element(). As an example:

You need to add the following import:
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

Using xpath:

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//*[@id='search']").click()

Needs be replaced with:

driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//*[@id='search']").click()

Likewise you also have to consider the following changes:

Using class_name:

element = find_element_by_class_name("element_class_name")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.CLASS_NAME, "element_class_name")

Using id:

element = find_element_by_id("element_id")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.ID, "element_id")

Using name:

element = find_element_by_name("element_name")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.NAME, "element_name")

Using link_text:

element = find_element_by_link_text("element_link_text")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.LINK_TEXT, "element_link_text")

Using partial_link_text:

element = find_element_by_partial_link_text("element_partial_link_text")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.PARTIAL_LINK_TEXT, "element_partial_link_text")

Using tag_name:

element = find_element_by_tag_name("element_tag_name")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "element_tag_name")

Using css_selector:

element = find_element_by_css_selector("element_css_selector")

Needs be replaced with:

element = driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "element_css_selector")

tl; dr

You can find a couple of relevant detailed discussions in:

Thank you, just need to mention that you have to import By [from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By] — Mhd O., Nov 22 '21 at 10:12
In case of replacing find_elements_by_tag_name don't forget the 's'. Use find_elements to get iterable as a result — Al Martins, Jan 11 '22 at 18:39

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 13 '22 at 18:32

As per your comment, you are using Selenium WebDriver version 4.0.0a5 which is not stable though. There is the potential that features may be added/removed between these releases. You may switch back to 3.141.59 and give it a try:

driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path="C:\New folder\chromedriver.exe",chrome_options=chrome_options)
url = 'http://www.youtube.com'
driver.get(url)
driver.maximize_window()
wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 20)

element = wait.until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.XPATH, "//form[@id='search-form']//div[@id='container']//div[@id='search-input']//input")))

actionChains = ActionChains(driver)
actionChains.move_to_element(element).click().perform()
actionChains.move_to_element(element).send_keys("Test",Keys.RETURN).perform()

Note: please add the below imports to your solution

from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait

Peter · Answer 3 · 2020-04-19T17:59:24.077

I changed the xpath of the search box to (there are multiple elements with id 'search'): driver.find_element_by_xpath("//input[@id='search']").click()

I then ran your code and it worked with no errors or warnings. Do this fix it for you?

Also, I don't know what you're trying to accomplish overall, but if you want to search something then you don't need to click the search bar first, you could just do.

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//input[@id='search']").send_keys("Your search query")
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//button[@id='search-icon-legacy']").click()

As for the warning: "find_element_by_* commands are deprecated. Please use find_element() instead" I believe that is because selenium is wanting you to use:

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//input[@id='search']')

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 13 '22 at 19:07

0

I just found something in the Selenium documentation. Try to use this:

driver.findElement(By.id("search"))

edited Nov 13 '22 at 19:07

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 19 '20 at 17:54

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 13 '22 at 19:08

0

You can just use:

driver.find_element_by_id('search')

For more information, read the documentation.

edited Nov 13 '22 at 19:08

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 19 '20 at 21:19

rafalou38

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score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Nov 13 '22 at 19:22

0

It’s just because of the version.

pip install selenium==3.14.0

edited Nov 13 '22 at 19:22

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 27 '21 at 04:42

Turbo -V9

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1

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Oct 27 '21 at 06:17
Re *"It’s just because of the version"*: Can you [elaborate](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/69732879/edit)? – Peter Mortensen Nov 13 '22 at 19:10

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Nov 13 '22 at 19:11

0

You would have to first import the By from Selenium:

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By

driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//input[@id='search']')

This would work.

edited Nov 13 '22 at 19:11

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 29 '21 at 08:11

oluwaseyi oyewunmi

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This seems to be a follow-up to *[Peter's answer](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/61308799/unable-to-locate-elements-in-selenium-python/61309062#61309062)* (function `find_element` does require that import (otherwise the result is '`E0602: Undefined variable 'By' (undefined-variable`)' (with Pylint)) and the `find_element` line is exactly the one from Peter's answer), not an answer to the question. Related: *[Why do I need 50 reputation to comment? What can I do instead?](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/214173/)*. – Peter Mortensen Nov 13 '22 at 19:14

Unable to locate elements in Selenium (Python)

7 Answers7

Solution

tl; dr

Linked

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