Handle staleelementreferenceexception Selenium Webdriver

What is StaleElementReferenceException:-

This exception occurs, when Selenium navigates to a different page, come backs to the same old page and performs operations on the old page. Technically, it occurs when the element defined in the Selenium code is not found in the cache memory and the Selenium code is trying to locate it .When we define an element on a page using Selenium, Selenium stores it in a cache memory. The element stored in cache memory generally gets deleted when the driver navigates away to another page during Selenium code execution. On coming back to the same old page and then trying to identify the cache removed element on the old page, we get StaleElementReferenceException as a result.

Real time example with flow diagram

Common Causes:-

1. The element has been deleted entirely.

2. The element is no longer attached to the DOM.

Sample Program to understand the error:-

Solution: - To overcome Stale Element Reference Exception in Selenium

Solution 1:-

You can refresh the page and again try to for same element.

Example: - If you are trying to click on link and getting the exception then try in below format

Driver.navigate().refersh();

Driver.findElement(By.id(“ur element id”)).click();

Solution 2:-

Sometimes it takes the time to attach element on Dom so you can retry using for loop and try catch.

 try{

     Driver.findElement(By.id()).click();

    break;

}catch(Exception e){

System.out.println(e.getMessage());
}

Solution 3:-

Wait for the element till it gets available

wait.until(ExpectedConditions.presenceOfElementLocated(By.id("xpath")));

Use ExpectedConditions.refreshed to avoid StaleElementReferenceException and retrieve the element again. This method updates the element by redrawing it and we can access the referenced element.