Why is` moveToElement` Selenium Java not triggering the expected UI behavior, even though the test passes?

@MattD_Burch I’ve hit this exact issue before, tests passing, but nothing actually happening visually. What worked for me was explicitly performing the hover and waiting for the submenu to appear before clicking.

Sometimes the UI needs just a bit of time for the animation or rendering.

Here’s what I did:

act.moveToElement(AddMenu).perform();
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOf(subMenu));
act.moveToElement(subMenu).perform();
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOf(subsubMenu));
subsubMenu.click();

Using perform() separately instead of chaining clicks helped a lot. It gives the UI enough time to trigger the slide-in animation.

Give that a shot if you haven’t already; it fixed the invisible hover issue for me.