When is `page.waitForSelector` necessary in Playwright tests? Playwright usually auto-waits for elements to be visible or loaded?

General Discussions
1

When is page.waitForSelector necessary in Playwright tests? Playwright usually auto-waits for elements to be visible or loaded?

So why would you explicitly call page.waitForSelector("locator")?

I understand using it for specific states, but I see many examples using it seemingly randomly.

Preformatted textWhen is it actually necessary in normal Playwright test scenarios?

2

Even though Playwright auto-waits for most actions like click() or fill(), I usually use page.waitForSelector when I need the element to reach a specific state before doing anything else. For example:


await page.waitForSelector('#submit', { state: 'visible' });

This is helpful when the element exists in the DOM but isn’t interactable yet. Auto-wait won’t catch that subtle timing issue, especially with animations or lazy-loaded content.

3

Sometimes elements are added dynamically after an API call or page animation. In these cases, relying on auto-wait can be flaky because Playwright only waits during certain actions. I often do:

wait page.waitForSelector('.notification');
const text = await page.textContent('.notification');

a

This ensures the element is truly in the DOM and ready for assertions, instead of occasionally hitting null or TimeoutError.

4

I found waitForSelector especially useful when doing things like scraping or reading attributes instead of interacting. Auto-wait triggers mostly on user actions (click, fill, etc.), so if I just want innerText or getAttribute, I do:

await page.waitForSelector('#user-status');
const status = await page.getAttribute('#user-status', 'data-state');
````Preformatted text`


Without waitForSelector, I’ve run into tests reading stale or missing data. It’s not overkill—it’s a safe guard for any non-clickable element.