Appium Mobile Safari Pop Up window - StaleElementReferenceError: Element does not exist in cache

Support
1

I am running a Hybrid app.
Device : iPhone 14 with iOS 17.0
Appium: 2.4.1
Automation framework : XCUITest

Since its a hybrid app, the app is opened some operation is performed.
Then the mobile safari browser is launched and the flow is navigated to a portal which is running in Mobile Safari.
In the portal flow as a next step it opens up a pop up window. In the pop up window there is go button that i need to click.

However the its throwing a StaleElementReferenceError and no element in the popup window is getting idenitifed.

Here are some of the details

Total number of context: 3
Context-1 … NATIVE_APP - Mobile Application under test
Context-2… WEBVIEW_14710.24 - Main Window context
Context-3 … WEBVIEW_14710.26 — this is the current context for the pop up window

availableWindows … size() 2.
WindowHANDLES …[14710.24, 14710.26]

Element operated
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@name=‘searchByIdButton’]")).click();

Error thrown

Build info: version: ‘3.141.59’, revision: ‘e82be7d358’, time: ‘2018-11-14T08:17:03’
System info: host: ‘Mac-Q02H7RH7’, ip: ‘fda8:33c7:aae7:1:c7:1fe2:c27f:ef1b%en0’, os.name: ‘Mac OS X’, os.arch: ‘x86_64’, os.version: ‘10.16’, java.version: ‘1.8.0_171’
Driver info: io.appium.java_client.ios.IOSDriver
Capabilities {app: /Users/x287202/Library/Deve…, autoAcceptAlerts: true, automationName: XCUITest, browserName: , clearSystemFiles: true, databaseEnabled: false, deviceName: iPhone 14, includeSafariInWebviews: true, javascriptEnabled: true, locationContextEnabled: false, networkConnectionEnabled: false, newCommandTimeout: 180, platform: MAC, platformName: iOS, takesScreenshot: true, udid: 56870226-7243-4D5F-B7B3-32E…, webStorageEnabled: false}
Session ID: 04d6babb-3254-4f13-8b63-515466b57f8c
*** Element info: {Using=xpath, value=//*[@name=‘searchByIdButton’]}

2

Would like to highlight a difference here … this flow is working fine in Android/Mobile chrome browser.

The. noticable difference of the same code in Android side is
It has 2 context and 2 Window handles incompare to iOS app and mobile Safari browser flow were we had 3 context for 2 windows(separate context for main broswer and pop up window)

Android flow details
Context Length 2
Context-1 … NATIVE_APP
Context-2 … WEBVIEW_chrome (one context for both Main and Popup window)

Kindly help as i have spend enough time in debugging and troubleshooting this specific scenario

3

You did not mention: are you switching to Web Context? After switching you may work like in pure browser and use e.g. CSS selector instead of xPath.

4

Thanks for your quick response. No luck with CSS selector …
Change my locator from
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@name=‘searchByIdButton’]")).click(); to the following

driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("#searchByIdButton"));

Yes i am changing the context from Native app to browser. Thats where i mentioned, for the same flow
In Android - i get 2 window and 2 context (one for native app and one for Web)
While
In iOS - i get 2 window and 3 context (one for native app and 2 for web - one for main browser and one for popup)

The error here is
org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: An unknown server-side error occurred while processing the command. Original error: Remote debugger error with code ‘undefined’: StaleElementReferenceError: Element does not exist in cache
Build info: version: ‘3.141.59’, revision: ‘e82be7d358’, time: ‘2018-11-14T08:17:03’
System info: host: ‘Mac-Q02H7RH7’, ip: ‘fda8:33c7:aae7:1:c7:1fe2:c27f:ef1b%en0’, os.name: ‘Mac OS X’, os.arch: ‘x86_64’, os.version: ‘10.16’, java.version: ‘1.8.0_171’
Driver info: io.appium.java_client.ios.IOSDriver
Capabilities {app: /Users/x287202/Library/Deve…, autoAcceptAlerts: true, autoWebview: true, autoWebviewTimeout: 20, automationName: XCUITest, browserName: , clearSystemFiles: true, databaseEnabled: false, deviceName: iPhone 14, includeSafariInWebviews: true, javascriptEnabled: true, locationContextEnabled: false, networkConnectionEnabled: false, newCommandTimeout: 180, noReset: true, platform: MAC, platformName: iOS, safariAllowPopups: true, takesScreenshot: true, udid: 56870226-7243-4D5F-B7B3-32E…, waitForIdleTimeout: 20, webStorageEnabled: false}
Session ID: c407584e-c543-40bc-b15e-d8018ad8b645
*** Element info: {Using=css selector, value=#searchByIdButton}

5

Try first with browser if you can make same e.g. in pure safary on phone or mac

6

No Luck still the same … even if i dont load the aap… still getting context - 3 and windows-2
Here are the logs for you
availableWindows … size() 2
21 Feb 2024 11:42:59 INFO logger - availableWindows … [64717.1, 64717.4]
21 Feb 2024 11:42:59 INFO logger - Context Length 3 WEBVIEW_64717.4
21 Feb 2024 11:42:59 INFO logger - Context … NATIVE_APP
21 Feb 2024 11:42:59 INFO logger - Context … WEBVIEW_64717.1
21 Feb 2024 11:42:59 INFO logger - Context … WEBVIEW_64717.4
21 Feb 2024 11:42:59 INFO logger - Parent Window Context = WEBVIEW_64717.1
21 Feb 2024 11:43:06 INFO logger - >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> WindowHANDLES …[64717.1, 64717.4]
21 Feb 2024 11:43:06 INFO logger - Title Window … CSS Crew Access for SWA PLT on February, 2024
21 Feb 2024 11:43:14 INFO logger - … Current Window title ----- CSS Crew Access for SWA PLT on February, 2024
21 Feb 2024 11:43:14 INFO logger - … Current context-child window ---- WEBVIEW_64717.4

Log
org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: An unknown server-side error occurred while processing the command. Original error: Remote debugger error with code ‘undefined’: StaleElementReferenceError: Element does not exist in cache
Build info: version: ‘3.141.59’, revision: ‘e82be7d358’, time: ‘2018-11-14T08:17:03’
System info: host: ‘Mac-Q02H7RH7’, ip: ‘fda8:33c7:aae7:1:c7:1fe2:c27f:ef1b%en0’, os.name: ‘Mac OS X’, os.arch: ‘x86_64’, os.version: ‘10.16’, java.version: ‘1.8.0_171’
Driver info: io.appium.java_client.ios.IOSDriver
Capabilities {autoWebview: true, automationName: XCUITest, browserName: Safari, databaseEnabled: false, deviceName: iPhone 14, javascriptEnabled: true, locationContextEnabled: false, networkConnectionEnabled: false, platform: MAC, platformName: iOS, takesScreenshot: true, udid: 56870226-7243-4D5F-B7B3-32E…, webStorageEnabled: false}
Session ID: 454290f1-5899-45d0-b2cb-8e2024c478e5
*** Element info: {Using=xpath, value=//*[@name=‘searchByIdButton’ and @value=‘Go’]}

7

Hi Aleksei,

Any update … has any one reported any such issue when it comes to a pop up with mobile safari browser with appium?

Kindly execute a simple scenario with mobile safari browser popup window to get a crux of the situation.

8

Try to replicate situation in pure browser. It will help you more understand problem

9

Hi Aleksei,

I have not seen any issue with desktop safari browser.
Its more specific to Mobile safari browser.