[FIXED] NoSuchElementException: Selenium unable to locate search bar regardless of which selector I use (xpath, css_selector, fullXpath etc..)

Issue

I'm trying to automate search procedure on facebook. I used the following code

search = driver.find_element_by_xpath('//*[@id="mount_0_0_ij"]/div/div[1]/div/div[2]/div[2]/div/div/div[1]/div/div/label/input')
search.send_keys('foo') # search for 'foo'
submit = driver.find_element_by_css_selector('#jsc_c_11 > div > a > div > div.hpfvmrgz.g5gj957u.buofh1pr.rj1gh0hx.o8rfisnq > span > span')
submit.click()

Note that I had attempted the same procedure beforehand using

WebDriverWait(f.browser, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, '//*[@id="mount_0_0_ij"]/div/div[1]/div/div[2]/div[2]/div/div/div[1]/div/div/label/input'))).send_keys("foo")

To no avail. I keep getting the same error

NoSuchElementException: Message: no such element: Unable to locate element: {"method":"xpath","selector":"//*[@id="mount_0_0_ij"]/div/div[1]/div/div[2]/div[2]/div/div/div[1]/div/div/label/input"}

with a TimeoutException for the last entry.

I have managed to automate login using selenium but these NoSuchElementExceptions occur so frequently, I'm starting to wonder if there's a problem with my device

Note : the following code works just fine for my coworkers

Solution

If it is the facebook Search Facebook which is located on the left corner top side, you can use the belwo css_selector :

input[name='global_typeahead']

code :

wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 10)
search = wait.until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "input[name='global_typeahead']")))
search.send_keys('foo')

Imports :

from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

PS :- Those css or xpath are not looking reliable, they may work or may not work, always try to write your own locators using axes.

Answered By - cruisepandey