Browser extension stops working mid stream

Feedback Activities
, , ,
1

Studio Version: 2021.10.5 Community License
Chrome Extension Version: 21.10.4 ID: philfmnjbnkhlkdaofflpdmflfofkfdb
Firefox Extension Version: 9.0.6823

Hello, I’m having an intermittent problem with browser extensions initially working, but then ceasing to function.

Example: I have a process in the RE Framework that is functioning fine. It runs through 3 or 4 items in the queue interacting with all of the screen elements correctly as expected. Then on the next item the automation fails because the robot complains it can’t find the screen element.

Investigating, I find I am no longer able to select ANY screen element in Studio as if the extension were not installed at all.

I have tried this: Chrome Extension Troubleshooting

And this: rpageek.com - This website is for sale! - RPA geek Resources and Information.

I have also uninstalled and reinstalled the browser extensions, but given that ALL browser extensions for ALL browsers are impacted simultaneously, I suspect it’s something more fundamental that’s going wrong.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled Studio and Assistant. The only thing that ever seems to work is for me to go and do something else and come back later and it’s working again. I have also been able to get things to work by going in to UiExplorer and changing the Framework to Active Accessibility and that gives me the ability to keep working but I have to redefine ALL of my selectors using Active Accessibility (until the extensions decide to return from their sabbatical).

This is just a fix of a symptom though and not a correction of the root cause. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions?

Just while I’ve been typing this message, I have been able to select screen elements sometimes, and then others not at all.

Anticipating your questions:

  1. Don’t waste your time asking if the extensions are properly installed and configured. As I said in my example above, the process works fine for several transactions, then the browser connection is lost and the process throws a system exception. This has happened in the middle of a queue item as well as between queue items. If there was a problem with the extension installation, it wouldn’t succeed on the first few transactions.

  2. No, I can’t reproduce it. It happens intermittently and then seems to eventually resolve itself with no input from me.

4

Hi @kevinpscott

Could you let us know if the latest 2022.4 release with its upgraded extension causes you the same trouble?

Also, will it still happen on a sample project that you’d create in 5 minutes to test it out, or does it only happen on some more complex websites? You mentioned that you can’t reproduce it, but it would still be valuable to know whether it reproduces all the time or only on a subset of websites/applications.

If it still continues, maybe a drastic way to try to reproduce/gather more data, but could you try creating a fresh windows user and see if the issue will still reproduce (this would decrease the amount of possible other applications that might be interfering with the UiPath services).

5

I haven’t experienced the problem since I did the following:

Following this:

I did this:

added key to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Google/Chrome/NativeMessagingHosts/

Added the folder com.UiPath.chromenativemsg_v2
Added the key C:\Users\kevin\AppData\Local\UiPath\native_host_manifest_chrome.json

I haven’t yet had the new version of Studio installed, and given that I’m in the middle of a huge development, I’m not messing with anything that’s working right now.

1 Like
6

Returning to this topic, after installing 2022.4 and it’s associated browser extension, the problem hasn’t reoccurred.