What does StaleElementReferenceException indicate in Selenium?
Hi Rashmi,
It indicates that a reference to an element is no longer valid due to changes in the DOM.
Learn more about this exception from here:
Let’s talk about something that can be super frustrating when working with web automation – the StaleElementReferenceException. If you’ve ever encountered this, you probably know it’s one of those moments that can drive you crazy! It happens when the element you’re trying to interact with is no longer attached to the DOM (Document Object Model).
Here’s what that really means: imagine you’ve found a button or a field on a webpage that you want to click or interact with. You’ve got the reference to it, but then something happens – maybe the page refreshes, or some JavaScript causes part of the page to update. Now, the element you had your ‘eye on’ earlier is either gone, replaced, or updated. So when you try to use the reference you initially captured, it’s no longer valid. Boom – you get the StaleElementReferenceException.
It’s like saving the location of an object in a room, leaving the room for a second, and then coming back to find the object moved or replaced. Your saved location isn’t helpful anymore because the object isn’t where you thought it was!
This usually happens when the DOM changes after you’ve already located an element. Maybe a page reloads, or some background updates happen that you didn’t account for. To avoid this, you need to make sure the element is still ‘fresh’ before trying to interact with it. More on how to handle that coming up in the next section!
When a web page is refreshed or dynamically modified, the reference to previously located elements might become invalid. This exception often occurs when interacting with elements after the page has been updated or the DOM structure has changed due to AJAX requests or other client-side manipulations. In such cases, you need to re-locate the element before performing actions on it to avoid encountering the StaleElementReferenceException.