Why does `WaitForSelectorAsync` in PuppeteerSharp fail to find an element by ID?

General Discussions
1

I’m using PuppeteerSharp to automate Google Maps and want to click the “Ich stimme zu” button with ID introAgreeButton. However, await page.WaitForSelectorAsync("#introAgreeButton") times out after 30 seconds even though the element exists in the HTML. I tried adding WaitForNavigationAsync() and delays, but it still fails. How can I reliably detect and interact with this element using WaitForSelectorAsync?

2

Often the issue isn’t that the element doesn’t exist, but that it’s inside an iframe or loaded dynamically after scripts run. Try this pattern:

// Wait for the element to appear and be visible
var button = await page.WaitForSelectorAsync("#introAgreeButton", new WaitForSelectorOptions
{
    Visible = true,
    Timeout = 60000 // increase timeout
});

await button.ClickAsync();

If the button is inside an iframe, you need to first get the frame:

var frame = page.Frames.FirstOrDefault(f => f.Url.Contains("google.com/maps"));
var button = await frame.WaitForSelectorAsync("#introAgreeButton", new WaitForSelectorOptions { Visible = true });
await button.ClickAsync();

Dynamic content often delays rendering, so make sure you’re waiting for visibility and not just presence in the DOM.

3

Sometimes IDs appear in the DOM but aren’t interactable yet. You can try directly evaluating JavaScript to click it:

await page.EvaluateFunctionAsync(@"() => {
    const btn = document.querySelector('#introAgreeButton');
    if (btn) btn.click();
}");

This approach bypasses PuppeteerSharp’s waiting and can handle situations where the element is quickly added and removed or temporarily obscured.

4

Google Maps often loads content via AJAX. Using WaitForNavigationAsync() alone may not be enough because the page doesn’t “navigate” in the traditional sense. Try:

await page.GoToAsync("https://www.google.com/maps", WaitUntilNavigation.Networkidle0);
var button = await page.WaitForSelectorAsync("#introAgreeButton", new WaitForSelectorOptions { Visible = true });
await button.ClickAsync();

The key is Networkidle0, which waits for all network requests to finish, increasing the chance that dynamic elements are present when you search for them.