Puppeteer error on Heroku: Could not find Chromium

Question

I'm a little new to deploying/hosting Node apps and Puppeteer.

But, I'm facing an issue though with my app on Heroku when trying to use Puppeteer.

The full error is:


Error: Could not find Chromium (rev. 1056772). This can occur if either

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938983+00:00 app[web.1]:  1. you did not perform an installation before running the script (e.g. `npm install`) or

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938983+00:00 app[web.1]:  2. your cache path is incorrectly configured (which is: /app/.cache/puppeteer).

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938983+00:00 app[web.1]: For (2), check out our guide on configuring puppeteer at https://pptr.dev/guides/configuration.

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938984+00:00 app[web.1]:     at ChromeLauncher.resolveExecutablePath (/app/node_modules/puppeteer-core/lib/cjs/puppeteer/node/ProductLauncher.js:120:27)

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938984+00:00 app[web.1]:     at ChromeLauncher.executablePath (/app/node_modules/puppeteer-core/lib/cjs/puppeteer/node/ChromeLauncher.js:166:25)

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938985+00:00 app[web.1]:     at PuppeteerNode.executablePath (/app/node_modules/puppeteer-core/lib/cjs/puppeteer/node/PuppeteerNode.js:162:105)

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938985+00:00 app[web.1]:     at Object.<anonymous> (/app/index.js:29:145)

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938985+00:00 app[web.1]:     at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1159:14)

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938986+00:00 app[web.1]:     at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1213:10)

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938986+00:00 app[web.1]:     at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1037:32)

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938986+00:00 app[web.1]:     at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:878:12)

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938986+00:00 app[web.1]:     at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (node:internal/modules/run_main:81:12)

2022-11-10T06:44:07.938987+00:00 app[web.1]:     at node:internal/main/run_main_module:23:47

My code for index.js is:


const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-extra')

const RecaptchaPlugin = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-recaptcha')

const StealthPlugin = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth')

const { executablePath } = require('puppeteer')

const axios = require('axios')

//pupeteer plugins

puppeteer.use(

    RecaptchaPlugin({

        provider: {

            id: '2captcha',

            token: 'XXX'

        },

        visualFeedback: true //colorize reCAPTCHAs (violet = detected, green = solved)

    })

)

puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin())

//pupeteer crawl

try {

    puppeteer.launch({ args: ['--no-sandbox', '--disable-setuid-sandbox'], headless: true, executablePath: executablePath(), ignoreHTTPSErrors: true }).then(async browser => {

        console.log('Running tests..')

        const page = await browser.newPage()

        await page.goto('https://bot.sannysoft.com')

        await page.setViewport({ width: 1680, height: 857 })

        await page.waitForTimeout(5000)

        await page.screenshot({ path: 'testresult.png', fullPage: true })

        await browser.close()

        console.log(`All done, check the screenshot. ✨`)

    })

} catch (error) {

    console.error(error);

}

And these are my build packs in Heroku:

I've been battling with these for a few days and tried everything :(

Thank you!!

I've tried adding the necessary flags:

args: ['--no-sandbox', '--disable-setuid-sandbox']

And also the build pack: https://github.com/jontewks/puppeteer-heroku-buildpack

These are the common solutions people have mentioned on other issue threads.

If I was you I would be deploying a docker container with chromium's path as executablePath in puppeteer. Using a custom driver is far better than the one that the puppeteer installs. — Partho KR, Nov 10 '22 at 15:09
@ParthoKR could you elaborate on how this would be done please? Sounds like an interesting option. — RainMan, Nov 11 '22 at 11:55

score 10 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 19 '22 at 08:45

10

I actually just came across this problem today. To break down why this is happening: Puppeteers new v19 updates how .cache is stored. This causes issues with builds and deployment. As such if your build can't find .cache then it can't find the chromium and it crashes.

Your two options are to tell your program to run a v18 version of puppeteer or simply put this config in the same directory as your index.js

project-directory/.puppeteerrc.cjs:

const {join} = require('path');

/**
 * @type {import("puppeteer").Configuration}
 */
module.exports = {
  // Changes the cache location for Puppeteer.
  cacheDirectory: join(__dirname, '.cache', 'puppeteer'),
};

Make sure to call it .puppeteerrc.cjs and afterwards, uninstall then reinstall puppeteer and add .cache to your .gitignore

If this still doesn't work you can try other config options at:
https://pptr.dev/guides/configuration/

edited Nov 19 '22 at 08:45

Tyler2P

2,324
26
22
31

answered Nov 17 '22 at 07:16

Cowinch

116
4

thank you! this worked for me puppeteer v19.7.2 – legshampoo Mar 09 '23 at 05:40
@legshampoo Are you also using the buildpack, I'm stuck on the same issue. – The Little Cousin Apr 06 '23 at 18:36
@TheLittleCousin yeah so I jumped the gun with my response... somehow it only worked once with v19.7.2 and then stopped. I currently have installed puppeteer@18.1.0, but I'm mainly using puppeteer-cluster@0.23.0 to launch multiple instances. and yes, using buildpacks heroku/nodejs and https://github.com/jontewks/puppeteer-heroku-buildpack. I'm using cluster in deployment, and it's working. – legshampoo Apr 07 '23 at 20:00

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 29 '22 at 21:11

I ran into this problem the other day. I built/packaged an Electron app with Puppeteer on Windows Server 2022 (a Vultr instance) and then tried running the built executable on a Windows 11 Home laptop. I tried the officially suggested solution of using the .puppeteerrc.cjs file. It did not work.

The only solution that worked for me was downgrading to Puppeteer 18.1.0. Hope that helps someone.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 02 '23 at 20:43

Puppeteer from v19 and later changed how the install of chromium is cached. In order to get it to work correctly with heroku, you need to add the following to your scripts object in your package.json:

"scripts": {
  ...
  "heroku-postbuild": "mkdir ./.cache && mv /app/.cache/puppeteer ./.cache"
},

Without the above, heroku will not include the new cache directory that puppeteer uses, and your app will fail saying it cannot find chromium.

Source: https://github.com/jontewks/puppeteer-heroku-buildpack

score -1 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 21 '23 at 17:51

-1

I fixed that issue by adding another buildpack https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-google-chrome and two environment variables to setup puppeteer:

PUPPETEER_EXECUTABLE_PATH = /app/.apt/usr/bin/google-chrome
PUPPETEER_SKIP_CHROMIUM_DOWNLOAD = true

edited Jun 21 '23 at 17:51

Tyler2P

2,324
26
22
31

answered Jun 20 '23 at 16:52

Wilfried Noel TZUDJOM

1
1

score -2 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 30 '22 at 04:19

-2

not facing this issue with puppeteer: 17.1.3

answered Nov 30 '22 at 04:19

Adnan Hassan

105
7

It does to me.. – YanivGK Mar 13 '23 at 03:23

Puppeteer error on Heroku: Could not find Chromium

5 Answers5

Linked