Trouble Shotting and Debugging

Common Issues

Element Selection Problems

Issue: Elements not found or interactions failingSolutions:

Use browser dev tools to test selectors
Add explicit waits for dynamic content
Use more specific or stable selectors
Check for iframe or shadow DOM elements

Timing and Race Conditions

Issue: Tests failing due to timing issuesSolutions:

Use waitForSelector() instead of fixed delays
Wait for network requests to complete
Use waitForLoadState() for page readiness
Implement proper error handling and retries

Authentication and Session Issues

Issue: Login failures or session timeoutsSolutions:

Verify credentials are correct and active
Handle multi-factor authentication scenarios
Use session storage for authentication state
Test login flow separately from main workflow

Performance and Timeout Issues

Issue: Tests timing out or running too slowlySolutions:

Optimize page load performance
Increase timeout values for slow operations
Use parallel execution where possible
Monitor and alert on performance degradation

Missing traces or videos

Issue: A result has no trace or video, or some pages have no videoSolutions:

Check whether the run failed. Scheduled runs keep the trace and video only when the check fails. Runs from the editor keep them whether the check passes or fails, and so do runs you record with npx checkly test --record or npx checkly trigger --record. See Viewing trace files.
Don’t rely on the trace and video options in your Playwright configuration. Browser checks ignore them, so you can’t keep artifacts for passing scheduled runs or turn off video recording. To control them, use a Playwright Check Suite and set use.trace and use.video.
Open pages from the test’s own page or context fixture. Playwright records one video per page in that context. Pages from a context you create with browser.newContext() have no video. See Playwright’s videos guide.
Set a test timeout below the 240-second run limit, for example test.setTimeout(210000). A test that times out on its own test timeout keeps its trace and video. A test still running when the check reaches the run limit is stopped without them. See Browser check timeouts.

Error Handling and Debugging

Wait Strategies

// Wait for specific conditions
await page.waitForSelector('[data-testid="loading-complete"]')
await page.waitForURL('**/dashboard')
await page.waitForFunction(() => window.dataLoaded === true)

// Wait for network requests
await page.waitForResponse(response => 
  response.url().includes('/api/user') && response.status() === 200
)

// Timeout configuration
await page.waitForSelector('.slow-element', { timeout: 30000 })

Error Recovery

// Graceful error handling
try {
  await page.click('.optional-popup-close', { timeout: 5000 })
} catch (error) {
  // Continue if popup doesn't appear
  console.log('No popup to close')
}

// Conditional interactions
const isLoggedIn = await page.locator('.user-menu').isVisible()
if (!isLoggedIn) {
  await page.click('.login-button')
  // Handle login flow
}

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Trouble Shotting and Debugging

Common Issues

Error Handling and Debugging

​Common Issues

​Error Handling and Debugging

Common Issues

Error Handling and Debugging