Elements not found by Selenium and Python, even though they are present

Question

I'm trying to automate a repetitive process in building a website in the format of an e-commerce store (I'm an amateur). These are repetitive steps that would certainly save me an extraordinary amount of time. I've already put together some steps, but now I'm stuck trying to find a certain button, I inspect the browser and I can copy the xpath, but when I run the code it doesn't find it. I've read about 200 questions here and I still haven't been able to find an answer that helps me. So if anyone can help me I will be grateful.

Part of the error that appears is this.

TimeoutException Traceback (most recent call last) Cell In[62], line 221 218 WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//span[normalize-space()='Páginas']"))).click() 220 # Clique no botão 'Adicionar Páginas' --> 221 WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, '//*[@id="app"]/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[2]/div/div/a/span'))).click()

TimeoutException: Message:

HTML do botão

<a href="https://admin.shopify.com/store/dc7020-3/pages/new" data-polaris-unstyled="true" class="Polaris-Button_r99lw Polaris-Button--pressable_1q8ey Polaris-Button--variantPrimary_1stsb Polaris-Button--sizeMedium_5f35p Polaris-Button--textAlignCenter_1kere"><span class="">Adicionar página</span></a>

Even though I leave the screen already loaded, and run the code just to click, it doesn't find it.

I've already tried: find_element; element_to_be_clickable; presence_of_all_elements_located

I've already tried: By.XPATH; By.ID; By.CSS_SELECTOR; By.NAME; etc

Part of the code I'm trying to run

 # Navigate to the "Pages" tab only the first time
        if i == 0:
            # Click on the 'Pages' tab
            WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//span[normalize-space()='Páginas']"))).click()

            # Click on the 'Add Pages' button
            WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, '//*[@id="app"]/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[2]/div/div/a/span'))).click()

Wasim · Accepted Answer · 2025-09-16 10:42:43Z

Key Changes:

Search for All <iframe> Elements
Make Your Xpath More Robust
Increase Wait Time a Little More

from selenium.common.exceptions import NoSuchElementException

# Make Your XPath More Robust
target_xpath = "//a[.//span[normalize-space()='Adicionar página']]"
# target_xpath = "//span[normalize-space()='Adicionar página']"

found = False

iframes = driver.find_elements(By.TAG_NAME, "iframe")

for idx, iframe in enumerate(iframes):
    driver.switch_to.default_content()  # Always reset first
    driver.switch_to.frame(iframe)
    # increase wait time
    try:
        btn = WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(
            EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, target_xpath))
        )
        print(f"Found inside iframe index: {idx}")
        btn.click()
        found = True
        break
    except:
        print(f" Not in iframe index: {idx}")
        continue

if not found:
    driver.switch_to.default_content()  # Reset frame
    print("Could not find the button in any iframe.")

Vikas Sharma · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-30 12:53:40Z

0

Here the Timeout Exception error indicates that the WebDriverWait method has been timed out before finding the element specified by the following XPath:

'//*[@id="app"]/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[2]/div/div/a/span'

which means it doesn't exist after 10 seconds.

Try this by increasing the timeout period:

WebDriverWait(driver,20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, '//*[@id="app"]/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[2]/div/div/a/span'))).click()

Try using a while loop for WebDriverWait:

loop_wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 20)

while True:

  try:

    wbdrvr = loop_wait.until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.XPATH,'//*[@id="app"]/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[2]/div/div/a/span')))
  
    break

  except TimeoutException:
  
    pass

  wbdrvr.click()

See if the iframe contains the XPath. Check here to know more about finding XPath using iframe.

Switch to the iframe's context and locate the element within the iframe:

driver.switch_to.frame(driver.find_element_by_id("iframe_id"))

pg_tab = WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//span[normalize-space()='Páginas']")))

adpg_btn = WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, '//*[@id="app"]/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[2]/div/div/a/span')))

pg_tab.click()

adpg_btn.click()

driver.switch_to.default_content()

edited Jan 30, 2024 at 12:53

Vikas Sharma

2,2161 gold badge15 silver badges26 bronze badges

answered Jan 29, 2024 at 13:41

naved196

918 bronze badges

5 Comments

Jorge Pedro Souza Silva Over a year ago

Thanks for the answer. But like I said before. I leave the page already loaded and do the test, it still returns this error. I've already entered up to 60 seconds, and I still can't find it.

naved196 Over a year ago

try using a while loop with WebDriverWait until its visible by handling the exception.Refer the original answer

naved196 Over a year ago

see if the iframe contains the xpath

Jorge Pedro Souza Silva Over a year ago

I tried this code, but apparently it doesn't work. I'm not sure, but I think the element is not in another iframe. Is there a way to search the page for all iframes?

naved196 Over a year ago

switch to iframe's context and and locate the element within iframe. Refer the original answer.

Jorge Pedro Souza Silva · Accepted Answer · 2024-02-02 12:59:37Z

0

I think that most of the time when an element is not found, it must be because of the iframe. That's what happened here. The friend helped me, not with the code, but with the idea of searching for iframes. Sorry if the question was redundant. Thank you @Naved196

answered Feb 2, 2024 at 12:59

Jorge Pedro Souza Silva

31 bronze badge

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