NoSuchElementException, Selenium unable to locate element

NoSuchElementException

org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchElementException popularly known as NoSuchElementException extends org.openqa.selenium.NotFoundException which is a type of WebDriverException.

NoSuchElementException can be thrown in 2 cases as follows :

• When using WebDriver.findElement(By by) :

  //example : WebElement my_element = driver.findElement(By.xpath("//my_xpath"));
  

• When using WebElement.findElement(By by) :

  //example : WebElement my_element = element.findElement(By.xpath("//my_xpath"));
  

As per the JavaDocs just like any other WebDriverException, NoSuchElementException should contain the following Constant Fields :

Constant Field      Type                                        Value
SESSION_ID          public static final java.lang.String        "Session ID"
e.g. (Session info: chrome=63.0.3239.108)

DRIVER_INFO         public static final java.lang.String        "Driver info"
e.g. (Driver info: chromedriver=2.34.522940 (1a76f96f66e3ca7b8e57d503b4dd3bccfba87af1),platform=Windows NT 6.1.7601 SP1 x86)

BASE_SUPPORT_URL    protected static final java.lang.String     "http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/"
e.g. (For documentation on this error, please visit: http://seleniumhq.org/exceptions/no_such_element.html)

---

Reason

The reason for NoSuchElementException can be either of the following :

• The Locator Strategy you have adopted doesn’t identifies any element in the HTML DOM.
• The Locator Strategy you have adopted is unable to identify the element as it is not within the browser’s Viewport.
• The Locator Strategy you have adopted identifies the element but is invisible due to presence of the attribute style=”display: none;”.
• The Locator Strategy you have adopted doesn’t uniquely identifies the desired element in the HTML DOM and currently finds some other hidden / invisible element.
• The WebElement you are trying to locate is within an <iframe> tag.
• The WebDriver instance is looking out for the WebElement even before the element is present/visibile within the HTML DOM.

---

Solution

The solution to address NoSuchElementException can be either of the following :

• Adopt a Locator Strategy which uniquely identifies the desired WebElement. You can take help of the Developer Tools (Ctrl+Shift+I or F12) and use Element Inspector.

  Here you will find a detailed discussion on how to inspect element in selenium3.6 as firebug is not an option any more for FF 56?

• Use executeScript() method to scroll the element in to view as follows :

  WebElement elem = driver.findElement(By.xpath("element_xpath"));
  ((JavascriptExecutor)driver).executeScript("arguments[0].scrollIntoView();", elem);
  

  Here you will find a detailed discussion on Scrolling to top of the page in Python using Selenium

• Incase element is having the attribute style=”display: none;”, remove the attribute through executeScript() method as follows :

  WebElement element = driver.findElement(By.xpath("element_xpath"));
  ((JavascriptExecutor)driver).executeScript("arguments[0].removeAttribute('style')", element)
  element.sendKeys("text_to_send");
  

• To check if the element is within an <iframe> traverse up the HTML to locate the respective <iframe> tag and switchTo() the desired iframe through either of the following methods :

  driver.switchTo().frame("frame_name");
  driver.switchTo().frame("frame_id");
  driver.switchTo().frame(1); // 1 represents frame index
  

  Here you can find a detailed discussion on Is it possible to switch to an element in a frame without using driver.switchTo().frame(“frameName”) in Selenium Webdriver Java?.

• If the element is not present/visible in the HTML DOM immediately, induce WebDriverWait with ExpectedConditions set to proper method as follows :

  • To wait for presenceOfElementLocated :

    new WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated(By.xpath("//div[@class="buttonStyle"]//input[@id='originTextField']")));
    

  • To wait for visibilityOfElementLocated :

    new WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.xpath("//div[@class="buttonStyle"]//input[@id='originTextField']")));
    

  • To wait for elementToBeClickable :

    new WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("//div[@class="buttonStyle"]//input[@id='originTextField']")));
    

---

Reference

You can find Selenium‘s python client based relevant discussion in:

• Selenium “selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchElementException” when using Chrome