WebDriverException: unknown error: DevToolsActivePort file doesn't exist while trying to initiate Chrome Browser

Question

I am trying to launch chrome with an URL, the browser launches and it does nothing after that.

I am seeing the below error after 1 minute:

Unable to         


        

Answer 1

TL;DR: If you are using VirtualBox shared folders, do not create the Chrome profile there!

---

I ran into this error under Debian 10, but it did not occur under Ubuntu 18.04.

In my Selenium tests, I wanted to install an extension, and use the following Chrome options:

chromeOptions.addArguments(
  `load-extension=${this.extensionDir}`,
  `user-data-dir=${this.profileDir}`,
  `disable-gpu`,
  `no-sandbox`,
  `disable-setuid-sandbox`,
  `disable-dev-shm-usage`,
);

The issue was that I was attempting to create a Chrome profile under a nonstandard directory which was part of a VirtualBox shared folder. Despite using the exact same version of Chrome and Chromedriver, it didn't work under Debian.

The solution was to choose a profile directory somewhere else (e.g. ~/chrome-profile).