Python: Selenium Firefox Webdriver failing with error: 'Can't load the profile...WARN addons.xpi..."

Question

I am trying to run the following Python code to create a Firefox Webdriver window via Selenium:

from selenium import webdriver
driver = webdriver.Firefox()
driver.get("http://www.google.com")

While this code worked fine a few weeks ago, it now produces the following foreboding message:

 Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test.py", line 2, in <module>
    driver = webdriver.Firefox()
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\firefox\webdriver.py", line 60, in __init__
    self.binary, timeout),
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\firefox\extension_connection.py", line 47, in __init__
    self.binary.launch_browser(self.profile)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\firefox\firefox_binary.py", line 61, in launch_browser
    self._wait_until_connectable()
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\firefox\firefox_binary.py", line 105, in _wait_until_connectable
    self.profile.path, self._get_firefox_output()))
selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: 'Can\'t load the profile. Profile Dir: c:\\users\\douglas\\appdata\\local\\temp\\tmpuf4ipq Firefox output: *** LOG addons.xpi: startup\r\n*** WARN addons.xpi: Ignoring missing add-on in C:\\Program Files\\CheckPoint\\ZAForceField\\WOW64\\TrustChecker\r\n*** WARN addons.xpi: Ignoring missing add-on in C:\\ProgramData\\Norton\\{78CA3BF0-9C3B-40e1-B46D-38C877EF059A}\\NSM_2.9.5.20\\coFFFw\r\n*** LOG addons.xpi: Skipping unavailable install location app-system-local\r\n*** LOG addons.xpi: Skipping unavailable install location app-system-share\r\n*** LOG addons.xpi: checkForChanges\r\n*** LOG addons.xpi: No changes found\r\n*** Blocklist::_loadBlocklistFromFile: blocklist is disabled\r\n************************************************************\r\n* Call to xpconnect wrapped JSObject produced this error:  *\r\n[Exception... "\'[JavaScript Error: "this._defaultEngine is null" {file: "resource://gre/components/nsSearchService.js" line: 3527}]\' when calling method: [nsIBrowserSearchService::currentEngine]"  nsresult: "0x80570021 (NS_ERROR_XPC_JAVASCRIPT_ERROR_WITH_DETAILS)"  location: "JS frame :: chrome://browser/content/search/search.xml :: get_currentEngine :: line 130"  data: yes]\r\n************************************************************\r\n************************************************************\r\n* Call to xpconnect wrapped JSObject produced this error:  *\r\n[Exception... "\'[JavaScript Error: "this._defaultEngine is null" {file: "resource://gre/components/nsSearchService.js" line: 3527}]\' when calling method: [nsIBrowserSearchService::currentEngine]"  nsresult: "0x80570021 (NS_ERROR_XPC_JAVASCRIPT_ERROR_WITH_DETAILS)"  location: "JS frame :: chrome://browser/content/search/search.xml :: get_currentEngine :: line 130"  data: yes]\r\n************************************************************\r\n************************************************************\r\n* Call to xpconnect wrapped JSObject produced this error:  *\r\n[Exception... "\'[JavaScript Error: "this._defaultEngine is null" {file: "resource://gre/components/nsSearchService.js" line: 3527}]\' when calling method: [nsIBrowserSearchService::currentEngine]"  nsresult: "0x80570021 (NS_ERROR_XPC_JAVASCRIPT_ERROR_WITH_DETAILS)"  location: "JS frame :: resource://app/components/nsBrowserGlue.js :: <TOP_LEVEL> :: line 354"  data: yes]\r\n************************************************************\r\n************************************************************\r\n* Call to xpconnect wrapped JSObject produced this error:  *\r\n[Exception... "\'[JavaScript Error: "this._defaultEngine is null" {file: "resource://gre/components/nsSearchService.js" line: 3527}]\' when calling method: [nsIBrowserSearchService::currentEngine]"  nsresult: "0x80570021 (NS_ERROR_XPC_JAVASCRIPT_ERROR_WITH_DETAILS)"  location: "JS frame :: resource://app/components/nsBrowserGlue.js :: <TOP_LEVEL> :: line 354"  data: yes]\r\n************************************************************\r\n'

Does anyone know what this means, or what I can do to remedy the error and get the code to run as expected? I've found related error messages through Google searches, but nothing that has allowed me to resolve the issue.

For what it's worth, I can open a Chrome Webdriver without issue by changing the second line of the above to driver = webdriver.Chrome().

I'm using Python 2.7, Selenium 2.35.0 (I just ran "pip install selenium --upgrade) and Firefox 26.0 on a Windows 8 machine. Any tips or advice others can offer are most appreciated.

Answer 1

Selenium 2.35 is not compatible with Firefox 26. As the release notes say, FF 26 support was added in Selenium 2.39. You need to update to 2.39. Try pip install -U selenium instead.

Answer 2

Not sure if it works fine on Windows too, but for me the combination of Firefox 26 and selenium 2.37.0 works fine.

Answer 3

I also have this issue in Win8.1 FF28 and python3.4/selenium 2.41. But after I degraded FF to 24, it worked! And I also tested in Win8.1/FF27/Python3.4/Selenium 2.41, it worked too.

Answer 4

I just ran into the same thing with FF36 and selenium 2.44.0. Re-installing FF 32.0 fixed it.

Answer 5

I've experienced the same problem on my Kubuntu 14.04 desktop, I removed the Firefox 47.XX and re-installed Firefox 45.XX and the problem resolved.

Download firefox debian package

• apt-get purge firefox
• dpkg -i firefox-XXXXXXXXXX.deb