Selenium errors can be very annoying. Right?

Sometimes we spend hours or even days troubleshooting problems.. Ugh!

So I’ve compiled a post on the most common Selenium errors that my students and I encountered.

I also supplied information on how to fix these errors.

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Selenium errors

A project with an output Type of class library cannot be started directly

Error Message

A project with an output Type of class library cannot be started directly. In order to debug this project, add an executable project to this solution which references the library project. Set the executable project as the startup project.

The Problem

The problem is that you create a project as a type “Class Library” or “Unit Test Project” and are attempting to execute this project using the key F5, which means “Run”. You cannot run these types of projects in this manner. A unit test project must be executed using the Test Explorer of Visual Studio.

The Solution

Option 1

In your IDE, go to Test > Windows > Test Explorer. This will open up the Test Explorer. Right click the name of your unit test and then select “Run Selected Tests”.

Option 2

Place the cursor inside of your test method. Press Ctrl + R, T. This will run the test that has the cursor.

This free C# course will teach you how to correctly run the different kinds of projects.

I fixed my #Selenium error using this post https://wp.me/p7absY-4E Click To Tweet

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There is already an option for the browserVersion capability. Please use the  instead.

Error Message

System.ArgumentException: ‘There is already an option for the browserVersion capability. Please use the  instead.

Parameter name: capabilityName’

The Problem

With the introduction of the W3C spec, there will be changes to the DriverOptions.cs from Selenium. This means that the old way of setting the ChromeOptions or DesiredCapabilities will no longer be possible. So this will be a new way to make this happen.

The Solution

Set your DriverOptions through properties instead of passing in strings into the AddAdditionalCapability()

Here’s a code sample for C#:

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Program does not contain a static ‘Main’ method suitable for an entry point

Error Message

Program does not contain a static ‘Main’ method suitable for an entry point

The Solution

Same solution as this error “A project with an output Type of class library cannot be started directly”

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Unable to copy file … chromedriver.exe

Error Message

Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error Unable to copy file “C:\Users\User\Documents\Visual Studio 2015\Projects\UnitTestProject5\UnitTestProject5\chromedriver.exe” to “bin\Debug\chromedriver.exe

InnerException

The process cannot access the file ‘bin\Debug\chromedriver.exe’ because it is being used by another process

The Problem

The problem here is that your ChromeDriver is being used by another process. So when it’s trying to be copied, it can’t because it’s being used.

The Solution

Option A

1. Open Task Manager and kill all chromedriver.exe processes

Option B

1. Open Powershell command line.
2. Execute command: Get-Process chromedriver | Stop-process
3. This will kill all processes at once

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An exception occurred while test discoverer ‘NUnit3TestDiscoverer’ was loading tests…

Error Message

An exception occurred while test discoverer ‘NUnit3TestDiscoverer’ was loading tests. Exception: Could not load file or assembly ‘nunit.engine’

The Problem

A caching issue with NUnit

The Solution

In this bug to NUnit, lorenh provides the solution about how to delete your cache.

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A exception with a null response was thrown sending an HTTP request… ConnectFailure …

Error Message

A exception with a null response was thrown sending an HTTP request to the remote WebDriver server for URL http://localhost:19409/session/7114d633a2adbc5105f3f6c7abc7c596/url. The status of the exception was ConnectFailure, and the message was: Unable to connect to the remote server

InnerException

Unable to connect to the remote server

The Problem

Compatibility of Selenium WebDriver with a browser is the culprit here. This is the largest burden in my behind, and has been for years now…

This will probably continue until Selenium WebDriver is a W3C standard that is integrated into each browser. Until then, we will keep having these issues.

This error occurred to me with:

• Chrome 55,56
• ChromeDriver 2.27
• Selenium WebDriver 3.0.1

The Solution

1. Use ChromeDriver for all your test automation practice. Until I tell you it’s okay to use other Drivers.
2. Make sure that your Chrome Browser and your ChromeDriver version are compatible.
   • You can see this information on the ChromeDriver download page
     

     How to tell if ChromeDriver is compatible with Chrome Browser

3. Upgrade your Chrome and your ChromeDriver if you must
   • Warning: It’s almost impossible to downgrade ChromeDriver, so don’t try
4. Download the latest Selenium WebDriver API Nuget package
5. Rebuild your whole solution with all of these new resources
6. Try to run your tests again
   • If this doesn’t work, restart your computer and try again.

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A exception with a null response was thrown sending an HTTP request to the remote…

Error Message

Similar to the error above, but it’s slightly different in wording and message.

Selenium.WebDriverException: ‘A exception with a null response was thrown sending an HTTP request to the remote WebDriver server for URL http://localhost:25675/session. The status of the exception was ReceiveFailure, and the message was: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a receive.’

InnerException

Unable to connect to the remote server

The Problem

You may have noticed that this page has one trend. Compatibility of Selenium WebDriver with a browser. This the largest burden in many of my behind, and has been for years now. This will probably continue until Selenium WebDriver is a W3C standard that is integrated into each browser. Until then, we will keep having these issues.

This error occurred to me with:

• Chrome 56
• ChromeDriver 2.27
• Selenium WebDriver 3.0.1.0

The Solution

• Update your Chrome browser to version 57.0
• This did the trick for me. Keep in mind that maybe your versions of browser and ChromeDriver may be different. However, if you receive this error, just upgrade your browser until it fits into the support matrix of ChromeDriver release logs.

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Cannot find Firefox binary in PATH …

Error Message

OpenQA.Selenium.WebDriverException: Cannot find Firefox binary in PATH or default install locations. Make sure Firefox is installed. OS appears to be: Vista

The Problem

The Selenium Webdriver team is making updates to Selenium to prepare it for Selenium 3.0. Also, the Mozilla team is making changes to the Firefox architecture to support the in built capabilities for Selenium Webdriver. Therefore, working with the latest versions of Selenium Webdriver and Firefox is going to cause you some issues. At least for the next few months. I believe that a stable 3.0 version will be released by Christmas.

The Solution

You can use the versions that I show in the Complete Selenium Webdriver Course:

• Selenium Webdriver v 2.51.0 – just be sure to select this version in Nuget Package Manager when downloading
• Firefox v 39.0

Get old Firefox versions

With the above installed, everything in this course for you should work without problems.

System.SecurityExceptions (multiple options)

Error Message

Almost any error message that contains SecurityException or something being “Inaccessible”

Here is a specific example that deals with NLog:

Error Error initializing target ‘EventLog Target[eventlog_wrapped]’. Exception: System.Security.SecurityException: The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched. Inaccessible logs: Security.
at System.Diagnostics.EventLog.FindSourceRegistration(String source, String machineName, Boolean readOnly, Boolean wantToCreate)
at System.Diagnostics.EventLog._InternalLogNameFromSourceName(String source, String machineName)
at System.Diagnostics.EventLog.LogNameFromSourceName(String source, String machineName)
at NLog.Targets.EventLogTarget.InitializeTarget()
at NLog.Targets.Target.Initialize(LoggingConfiguration configuration)
The Zone of the assembly that failed was:
MyComputer

The Problem

It’s stupid if you ask me, but a certainly recurring problem…

For whatever reason, Visual Studio sometimes requires you to start it as an Administrator. I believe this is after first installation or any kind of modification to Visual Studio.

The Solution

1. Right click your Visual Studio icon
2. Select “Run as administrator”
3. Perform whatever operation you were previously trying to perform.
4. The error should now be fixed

PS. You don’t need to keep running it as Administrator after this. At least it’s a one time action.

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System.TypeInitializationException

System.TypeInitializationException: System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for ‘Framework.Browser’ threw an exception. —> OpenQA.Selenium.WebDriverException: Failed to start up socket within 45000 ms. Attempted to connect to the following addresses: 127.0.0.1:7055.

Or something like this?

 

OpenQA.Selenium.WebDriverException : Unexpected error. System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the remote server —> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it

Today is your lucky day because I am going to help you resolve these really annoying errors!

The Problem

The problem is a standard compatibility issue between Selenium WebDriver and your version of a browser. As I am writing about this, the latest WebDriver version is 2.53.1. The latest Chrome version is 51.0 and the latest Firefox version is 46.0. Therefore, the Selenium WebDriver API does not get updated as often as Chrome or Firefox.

When different types of browsers such as Chrome or Firefox get updated, there is a chance that this update will break the Selenium API.

In our industry, this is known as a regression. Therefore, when you get the latest version of your browser, you may be using a Selenium WebDriver version that does not support the latest features of that browser. At this point, you will receive an ugly error that looks like this:

System.TypeInitializationException

Now, you will spend the next day wondering how your Selenium code used to work yesterday and today it just stopped working.

The Solution

Downgrade your appropriate browser to the version supported by the latest Selenium Driver. This might be Firefox, ChromeDriver, IEDriver and so on.

In this example I teach you how to downgrade Firefox.

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An exception occurred while invoking executor ‘executor://mstestadapter/v2’ …

Error Message

This message is in your Output pane in “Output from Tests”.

An exception occurred while invoking executor ‘executor://mstestadapter/v2’: Constructor on type ‘Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestPlatform.MSTest.TestAdapter.Execution.UnitTestRunner’ not found.

The Symptoms

You are trying to run your Automation tests using MSTest, but they don’t run. They start going, but then Visual Studio just stops. When you check the Output pane, you see the message described above.

MSTest has a bug and needs an update. I had version 1.1.11 installed and it caused me this issue.

The Solution

1. Using NuGet Package manager, update your MSTest.TestAdapter and MSTest.TestFramework NuGet packages to the latest version. I updated to 1.1.18.
2. Restart Visual Studio
3. Re-run your automation tests

System.InvalidOperationException : unknown error: Chrome version must be…

Error Message

System.InvalidOperationException : unknown error: Chrome version must be >= 54.0.2840.0

The Problem

Another issue with compatibility of ChromeDriver with Chrome Browser. In this case it was Chrome version 48.0 not working with ChromeDriver version 2.27

The Solution

Upgrade your Chrome browser to the version supported by ChromeDriver. For example, ChromeDriver 2.27 supports Chrome 54 – 56 according to their release notes.

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Issues with Firefox and Selenium 3.0 Compatibility

Error Message

Nothing specific, if you see weirdness with Firefox and Selenium 3.0, this solution will probably work for you

The Problem

The #1 problem that people complain about is that their Firefox Driver doesn’t work with Selenium 3.0. I get this question about 72 times per day. Let me help.

The Selenium Webdriver team released Selenium 3.0. However, the Mozilla team is making changes to the Firefox architecture to support the in built capabilities for Selenium Webdriver. Therefore, working with the latest versions of Selenium Webdriver and Firefox is going to cause you some issues until the Firefox team finishes implementing Gecko Driver. By the way, you won’t be using Firefox driver any more.

The Solution

If you are starting to use Selenium Webdriver, your easiest route is to start by using Chrome Driver. You can use the latest version of Selenium and the latest version of Chrome Driver.

Don’t touch Gecko Driver (replacement of FirefoxDriver) until it is more mature. Otherwise, you’re bound to cause yourself problems.

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Element is not clickable at point (X, Y). Other element would receive the click…

Error Message

System.InvalidOperationException : unknown error: Element is not clickable at point (111, 700). Other element would receive the click: <div class=”et_social_heading”>…</div>  (Session info: chrome=45.0.2454.93)  (Driver info: chromedriver=2.15.322448 (52179c1b310fec1797c81ea9a20326839860b7d3),platform=Windows NT 6.1 SP1 x86_64)

The Problem

The problem here is that the element that you are trying to click is either covered by another element, or simply not visible. Here is an example. If you go to www.ultimateqa.com and try to click the Start Here button when you are a bit scrolled down, the header covers up the button. As a result, even though the button is on the page, it is not clickable because the header is covering it up.

The Solution

To fix this problem, you need to make the element visible. Specifically,  Selenium tries to click on the exact center of the element. Your options are to scroll up, or hover over an element to close it, or minimize an expanded element. Simply put, make sure that your element is visible for clicking. The center of the element that you want to interact with should not be obstructed by another element.

You can scroll the element into view like this:

Or you can use the actions class to move to element before interacting with it like this:

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Unit tests not showing up in Visual Studio test explorer

Error Message

Something like this below:

…\MSTest.TestAdapter.1.2.0/build/_common/Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestPlatform.MSTest.TestAdapter.dll

The Problem

• Visual Studio Version: 15.0.X
• MSTest Adapter version: 1.18

There seems to a be bug with Visual Studio and the Visual Studio test adapter when you are trying to work with the versions listed above.

The Solution

To fix this problem, you need to update Visual Studio to version 15.5.2 and your MSTest Adapter in the Nuget package manager to version 1.2.0.

Are your #Selenium #automation tests not showing up in the Visual Studio Test Explorer? Here is the fix https://wp.me/p7absY-4E Click To Tweet

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Unit tests not running in Visual Studio Test Explorer

Error messages

UTA031: class … does not have valid TestContext property. TestContext must be of type TestContext, must be non-static, public and must not be read-only. For example: public TestContext TestContext.

If you are using the MStest unit testing framework, make sure that your TestContext property follows the specifications listed in the message. Meaning non-static, public and must not be read-only.

It should look like this:

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OpenQA.Selenium.WebDriverException: Unexpected error. {“status”: 9,”value”: {“id”: “UnknownCommand” …

Error messages

OpenQA.Selenium.WebDriverException: Unexpected error. {    “status”: 9,    “value”: {        “id”: “UnknownCommand”,        “error”: “unknown command”,        “message”: “The requested resource could not be found, or a request was received using an HTTP method that is not supported by the mapped resource.”    }}

Programming Languages

Java, C#

The problem

Common Selenium Warnings

ExpectedConditions’ is obsolete: ‘ implementation… deprecated

Error message

ExpectedConditions’ is obsolete: ‘The ExpectedConditions implementation in the .NET bindings is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. This portion of the code has been migrated to the DotNetSeleniumExtras repository on GitHub (https://github.com/DotNetSeleniumTools/DotNetSeleniumExtras)’

The problem

Winter is coming! And so is Selenium 4.0 🙂 That’s exciting news because it means that it’s getting better. However, this also means that there are some things that will be deprecated. ExpectedConditions.cs will be moving to a different Nuget package. Right now, if you are using Selenium 3.X, this is just a warning. Later, you will not be able to do this.

The Solution

I outlined the solution in depth here