selenium.common.exceptions.InvalidArgumentException: Message: invalid argument: File not found error invoking send_keys() using Selenium

Question

I'm new to Selenium Automated Testing and I'm just trying to do a simple task by typing in "hi" in the text box on a web page.

My code looks like this:

input = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//input[@type='file']")
input.send_keys('hi')

But when I run the code I received this error:

selenium.common.exceptions.InvalidArgumentException: Message: invalid argument: File not found : hi

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Avoid using input and use a different name for your variable as that could be the cause. Can you share the webpage url? — QHarr
– QHarr, Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 7:09
This text box is most likely looking for a filename. Did you try giving full path with filename instead of 'hi'? — anish
– anish, Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 11:06
You succeeded in typing 'hi' into the text box. The problem is that the textbox is an INPUT that is expecting a filename... thus the error. Did you read the error message? File not found : hi — JeffC
– JeffC, Commented Mar 13, 2019 at 19:44

YoDO · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-13 08:36:25Z

1

You first need to import "By"

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
input=driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//input[@type="file"]')
input.send_keys("hi")

You can also write it in (although not suggested method to do )

from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//input[@type="file"]').send_keys("hi")

answered Mar 13, 2019 at 8:36

YoDO

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5 Comments

undetected Selenium Over a year ago

Why is the second code block not suggested method? What's wrong in it?

YoDO Over a year ago

Readability and re-usability decreases . What if we want to use the same element to be cleared after entering text? we will again write the "driver.find_element" instead store the webelement in a variable and then perform operations on it

undetected Selenium Over a year ago

Readability? re-usability? It's an <input> element and send_keys() will be followed by click() or submit(). Of coase the element will become stale

JeffC Over a year ago

No, you would refactor the code to separate out the .find_element() and store its return in variable and then do the later actions using the variable. There's nothing wrong with a one-liner here that gets refactored later. In your first case, you are storing a result in a variable that is not needed.

JeffC Over a year ago

@DebanjanB Not all .send_keys() are followed by .click() or .submit(). There could easily be other actions after like YoDO suggested, e.g. .clear(), if you are testing invalid inputs, etc.

undetected Selenium · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-14 17:00:11Z

This error message...

selenium.common.exceptions.InvalidArgumentException: Message: invalid argument: File not found

...implies that the WebDriver instance was unable to find a file through the character sequence you have sent through send_keys().

The relevant HTML DOM would have helped us to debug your issue in a better way. Still it is clear from the Locator Strategy which you have used, that the expected content must be of type as file. Additionally it is possible, there is a JavaScript involved which checks the contents passed to the element if at all the contents refers to a valid file.

Solution

You need to pass a valid file as an argument with send_keys() as follows:

driver.find_element(By.XPATH, "//input[@type='file']").send_keys("/path/to/filename.extension")

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