Skip to main content
Q&A

Systematic approach to fixing StaleElementReferenceException in Selenium?

Ajitesh Mohanta
Ajitesh MohantaAmbassador
May 14, 2026 1,418 0
StaleElementReferenceException is the bane of our Selenium suite. We get maybe 20–30 per CI run across 800 tests, mostly on pages that have React re-renders. Current approach: retry the element lookup up to 3 times with a small sleep. It works but it's ugly and slow. Is there a cleaner pattern? I've seen approaches using: - A custom `findElement` wrapper that retries on stale - `ExpectedConditions.refreshed()` which I don't fully understand - Moving to relative locators to avoid stale references Looking for a solution that's clean enough to enforce team-wide.

No comments yet. Be the first to answer this question!

Join the discussion

Have something to add?

Sign in to reply, follow this thread, and earn XP when your answer helps someone.