Common errors and solutions for Selenium page loading waiting

1. ElementNotInteractable

Cause of the problem: The element has been loaded into the DOM but is blocked by other components (such as pop-ups and floating layers), or is not fully rendered (such as dynamic CSS styles not taking effect).

Solution:

Use an explicit wait condition EC.element_to_be_clickable, which verifies that the element is both visible and clickable.

If the page layout changes and causes obstruction, you can directly trigger the click event through JavaScript:

driver.execute_script("arguments[0].click();", element)

2. StaleElementReference

Cause of the problem: After the page is refreshed or the DOM is re-rendered, the previously located element object loses its relevance.

Solution:

Reposition before operating on elements, for example to dynamically retrieve elements in a loop:

elements = driver.find_elements(By.TAG_NAME, "li")

for i in range(len(elements)):

# Re-obtain the element list each time through the loop

current_element = driver.find_elements(By.TAG_NAME, "li")[i]

current_element.click()

Encapsulates the retry mechanism to automatically handle transient errors caused by DOM refresh.

3. Waiting timeout (TimeoutException)

Causes of the problem: network delay, slow loading of the target element, or unreasonable setting of waiting conditions (such as incomplete AJAX request).

Solution:

Hierarchical timeout settings: The global implicit wait is set to 10 seconds, and the explicit wait for key operations is extended to 20-30 seconds.

Dynamic condition optimization: combine multiple waiting conditions (such as element visibility + AJAX request completion status).

Log diagnosis: Take a screenshot of the page or output the current DOM status after a timeout to assist in analyzing blocking points.

4. Window handle lost (NoSuchWindowException)

Cause of the problem: The window context is not switched in time after the page jumps or a new tab is opened.

Solution:

Before operating the new window, explicitly wait for the new window handle to appear:

original_window = driver.current_window_handle

wait.until(EC.number_of_windows_to_be(2))

new_window = [x for x in driver.window_handles if x != original_window][0]

driver.switch_to.window(new_window)

Use the EC.new_window_is_opened condition to monitor window change events.

5. Asynchronous loading content is not ready

Cause of the problem: SPA (single-page application) dynamically loads content through JavaScript, and traditional waiting strategies cannot capture the completion status.

Solution:

Custom wait function: listen to application-specific state variables (such as React's __NEXT_DATA__).

MutationObserver listener: monitor DOM subtree changes through JavaScript:

script = """

const callback = arguments[arguments.length - 1];

const observer = new MutationObserver(() => callback(true));

observer.observe(document.body, {childList: true, subtree: true});

"""

driver.execute_async_script(script)

Prioritize the combination of explicit wait and custom conditional strategies, and design dedicated waiting logic for different technology stacks (such as React, Vue, and AJAX). For complex scenarios, you can combine performance monitoring tools (such as Selenium Grid logs and browser developer tools) to analyze network requests and DOM event flows, and continuously optimize timeout thresholds and conditional judgment logic.

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