StaleElementReferenceException on FirefoxWebElement.get_attribute even after WebDriverWait

Question

I am trying to get the inner text of a specific element on a website (which runs on React production build) using Selenium. I am doing the following:

driver = webdriver.Firefox()
driver.get('some site using React')

WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(
    expected_conditions.text_to_be_present_in_element(
        (By.CSS_SELECTOR, '.parent p'), 
        'some text here'
    )
)

This all works - in fact, I can even access the element afterwards:

elem = driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, '.parent p')
print(elem)
# -> <selenium.webdriver.firefox.webelement.FirefoxWebElement (session="57b82b73-0c6a-40c5-97e1-b5861b3d43e6", element="736edc49-cef0-4723-b69e-afabd80f1e9d")>

However, as soon as I try to do anything with this, I get a StaleElementReferenceException. For instance,

print(elem.get_attribute('innerText'))

or

print(elem.text)

both throw the following error:

selenium.common.exceptions.StaleElementReferenceException: Message: The element reference of <p> is stale; either the element is no longer attached to the DOM, it is not in the current frame context, or the document has been refreshed

I have also tried replacing expected_conditions.text_to_be_present_in_element with expected_conditions.presence_of_element_located, but the issue still persists. I am at a loss for why I am able to successfully await the element's loading, even recognising that the text in said element matches my format (i.e. we are able to read the text, somehow), and even being able to print the element itself - but when I attempt to get its text, even just read a property (not call a method), I get this exception. Sometimes, on perhaps every third attempt or so, it works - but then it goes back to not working again.

How can I get around this error, in order to access my text as soon as it matches my intended format (i.e. includes 'some text here')?

As per @PDHide's request, here is my full code:

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

from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Firefox()

while True:  # Running repeatedly, to ensure that the solution works consistently over multiple executions
    driver.get('url')
    WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(
        EC.text_to_be_present_in_element(
            (By.CSS_SELECTOR, '.parent p'), 
            'some text here'
        )
    )

    print(driver.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, '.parent p').get_attribute('innerText'))

This usually works for one or two executions, before breaking and reverting to throwing a StaleElementReferenceException.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 05 '21 at 13:41

1

Stale element state that the DOM (Page HTML) was modified after the element was located.

so for example:

 print(elem.get_attribute('innerText'))
 clicksomebutton.click()
 print(elem.get_attribute('innerText'))

It fail if click refreshes or loads something on the screen. FOr this to work you have to find element again.

 print(elem.get_attribute('innerText'))
 clicksomebutton.click()
 print(driver.find_element_by_xpath('blabla').get_attribute('innerText'))

answered Jan 05 '21 at 13:41

PDHide

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I've tried this, and it works... **occasionally**. However, every one in three times or so, it still breaks, especially when running it on multiple sites in a loop (which I realise, I didn't specify in my MVE above). Thanks anyway for the suggestion! – Geza Kerecsenyi Jan 05 '21 at 14:10
@GezaKerecsenyi you have to add explicit wait – PDHide Jan 05 '21 at 14:13
please add the full code where error is thrown – PDHide Jan 05 '21 at 14:13
what do you mean by an 'explicit wait'? I'm still doing the `WebDriverWait` with `expected_condition`. My 'full code' is as above; I'm just running the same thing multiple times to stress-test it and it breaks after one or two runs. – Geza Kerecsenyi Jan 05 '21 at 14:20
@GezaKerecsenyi instead of spliting the code into section add a complete code that shows actual code flow , and also menthion the state of the system while you try elem.getText – PDHide Jan 05 '21 at 14:25
OK, see now @PDHide – Geza Kerecsenyi Jan 05 '21 at 14:31
@ are you still gettin stale excpetion or some other exception? – PDHide Jan 05 '21 at 14:36

StaleElementReferenceException on FirefoxWebElement.get_attribute even after WebDriverWait

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