Error starting appium server

Right or wrong, it’s very pleasant to break something from time to time. — Fyodor Dostoevsky

Installing Appium

You just installed Appium (Server or Desktop) and you try to run it but nothing happens. Before you ask Google for help, run appium-doctor and make sure the necessary dependencies are ok.

Appium doctor

Possible fixes:

• Node.js might need an update.
• Make sure you have Android SDK Platform-Tools package installed.
• Make sure to install Xcode and Xcode Command Line Tools.
• Set ANDROID_HOME and JAVA_HOME paths.

NOTE:

Appium Server and Appium Desktop are installed in two different places.

Appium Server:

/usr/local/lib/node_modules/appium/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent

Appium Desktop:

/Applications/Appium.app/Contents/Resources/app/node_modules/appium/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent

Errors

Errno 61 Connection refused

urllib3.exceptions.MaxRetryError: HTTPConnectionPool(host='localhost', port=4723): 
Max retries exceeded with url: /wd/hub/session (Caused by NewConnectionError('<urllib3.connection.HTTPConnection object at 0x10a4adca0>: 
Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 61] Connection refused'))

It may simply be that you did not start the server. Start the server and the error should be gone.

Could not proxy command

selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: 
Message: An unknown server-side error occurred while processing the command. Original error: 
Could not proxy command to the remote server. Original error: socket hang up

This error often happens when the device is disconnected. Check the developer options and make sure that the device does not lose the connection because of screen lock, screen saver, etc.

If this error happens while you are using Android, check if the SDK is up-to-date.

After you have checked the developer options and made sure the SDK is up-to-date, try restarting Appium. If the issue persists, try killing the Appium process.

1. Open Terminal
2. Run command: lsof -Pn -i4
   • Lists all active processes
3. Run command: kill -9 <processNumber>
   • Kills the specific Appium process,
   • Or run killall node to kill all instances of node.js
4. Start Appium Server again

Unable to instantiate AppiumDriver

Happens sometimes if you had multiple Appium instances running. Maybe you had both Appium Server and Appium Desktop, or multiple Appium Inspectors running and some processes were not closed properly. Try to kill all those processes and restart Appium.

1. Open Terminal
2. Run command: killall node
   • Kills all instances of node.js
3. Start Appium Server again

Error 65 / Unable to launch the test runner

[WebDriverAgent] xcodebuild exited with code '65' and signal 'null'

WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner.app encountered an error (Failed to install or launch the test runner. 
If you believe this error represents a bug, please attach the result bundle at /Users/user/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/WebDriverAgent-ciegwgvxzxdrqthilmrmczmqvrgu/Logs/Test/Test-WebDriverAgentRunner-2021.12.13_10-50-28-+0100.xcresult. 
(Underlying Error: Unable to launch com.user.WebDriverAgentRunner.xctrunner. 
(Underlying Error: Request to launch com.user.WebDriverAgentRunner.xctrunner failed. The operation couldn’t be completed. 
Unable to launch com.user.WebDriverAgentRunner.xctrunner because it has an invalid code signature, inadequate entitlements or its profile has not been explicitly trusted by the user. : 
Failed to launch process with bundle identifier 'com.user.WebDriverAgentRunner.xctrunner'. 
(Underlying Error: The operation couldn’t be completed. Unable to launch com.user.WebDriverAgentRunner.xctrunner because it has an invalid code signature, inadequate entitlements or its profile has not been explicitly trusted by the user.))))

Could happen if:

• The developer is not trusted on the device.
• WebDriverAgentRunner in the Xcode is not set up correctly.
• The Appium version and the iOS version are not compatible.

Fix:

1. Open WebDriverAgent.xcodeproj.
2. Select WebDriverAgentRunner -> device_serial_number in the toolbar.
3. Select Product -> Run or Product -> Test to install WebDriverAgentRunner to the selected device.
4. Trust the device in the options.

If the issues persist, check that you have correctly set up the Xcode configuration.

SplashActivity never started

Original error: 
'com.infinum.app.ui.splash.SplashActivity' or 'com.infinum.app.repro.mock.com.infinum.app.ui.splash.SplashActivity' never started. 
Visit https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/master/docs/en/writing-running-appium/android/activity-startup.md for troubleshooting

DriverConfigurationError: Could not instantiate new WebDriver instance of type class io.appium.java_client.AppiumDriver 
Unable to create a new remote session. 
Please check the server log for more details. Original error: An unknown server-side error occurred while processing the command. 
Original error: Cannot start the 'com.infinum.app.staging' application. 

Test execution never starts

If the issue happens on start, you need to add one of the following capabilities:

• appWaitActivity

• appActivity

For example:

"appium:appActivity": "com.infinum.app.ui.project.ProjectActivity"

Read app activities for more information.

Test execution stops during test run

Another reason could be that the app opens a webview, or other screen outside the app, which stays open even after the test is done. When the following test starts, the execution could end with the SplashActivity error.

To fix the issue, rearrange the steps in your test and/or add a step that navigates back to the app or closes the screen before the test is done.

For example, step to navigate back to the app:

WebDriverAgent keeps getting deleted when opening Appium Inspector

There could be various problems occurring. Some might be related to faulty WebDriverAgent configuration. But it also could be there are still some Appium processes running or that simply there is another Appium Inspector screen already open. That will cause Appium to delete the WDA, which usually only happens on iOS.

IOException

java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "ideviceinstaller": error=2, No such file or directory

Fix by installing ideviceinstaller manually:

1. Open Terminal
2. Run command: brew install ideviceinstaller

Additional resources

Troubleshooting Appium

Selenium/Appium Troubleshooting

Here’s what to do if you’re experiencing problems, before you submit a ticket
to github or write to the appium-discuss discussion group.

General

• Make sure you’ve followed the getting started steps in the README
• Make sure your system is set up appropriately (i.e., XCode is updated,
  Android SDK is installed and ANDROID_HOME is set.
• Make sure the paths to your applications are correct
• On windows run appium.app as administrator or when running from source you need to run cmd as administrator.
• When installing on Mac, make sure the user has write permissions for /usr/local/lib or install Appium with the command npm install -g appium --unsafe-perm=true --allow-root

If you’re running Appium.app

• Update the app and restart. If you get a message saying the app can’t be updated,
  re-download it from appium.io.

If you’re running Appium from source

• git pull to make sure you’re running the latest code
• Remove old dependencies: rm -rf node_modules
• Re-install dependencies: npm install

• Re-transpile the code: gulp transpile

• You can also use Appium Doctor to determine whether your system is configured correctly for Appium.
• If you get this error after upgrading to Android SDK 22:
  {ANDROID_HOME}/tools/ant/uibuild.xml:155: SDK does not have any Build Tools installed.
  In the Android SDK 22, the platform and build tools are split up into their
  own items in the SDK manager. Make sure you install the build-tools and platform-tools.

Android

• Make sure the Android emulator is up and running.
• It’s sometimes useful to run adb kill-server && adb devices. This can
  reset the connection to the Android device.
• If you’re running the Android emulator using Fastboot and the emulator isn’t being detected by adb, try doing a cold boot: Android Studio > Tools > AVD Manager > Actions > Cold Boot Now
• Make sure you set ANDROID_HOME pointing to the Android SDK directory
• After setting power state to off (e.g.: driver.setPowerAC(PowerACState.OFF);) you must create a new session.
• When using -wipe-data in avdArgs the noReset capability will be ignored if set to true.

Android Espresso

• Appium is supposed to disable animations by default, but if it doesn’t work try following the Espresso setup instructions which advises that «To avoid flakiness, we highly recommend that you turn off system animations on the virtual or physical devices used for testing. On your device, under Settings > Developer options, disable the following 3 settings: Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, Animator Duration scale»

Windows

• Make sure developer mode is on
• Make sure command prompt is Admin
• Check that the URL Appium server is listening to matches the one specified in test script

IOS

• Make sure Instruments.app is not open
• If you’re running the simulator, make sure your actual device is not
  plugged in
• Make sure the accessibility helper is turned off in your Settings app
• Make sure the app is compiled for the version of the simulator that’s being
  run
• Make sure the app is compiled for the simulator (or real device) as
  appropriate (e.g., in debug mode for the simulator), or you might get
  a posix spawn error.
• If you’ve ever run Appium with sudo, you might need to sudo rm
/tmp/instruments_sock and try again as not-sudo.
• If this is the first time you’ve run Appium, make sure to authorize the use
  of Instruments. See the UIAutomation Driver doc.
• If Instruments is crashing when running against a physical device («exited with code 253»), ensure Xcode has downloaded device symbols. Go to Window -> Devices, and it should start automatically. This is needed after iOS version upgrades.
• If you see iOS Simulator failed to install the application. and the
  paths are correct, try restarting the computer.
• Make sure your macOS keychain that holds the certificate(s) needed for building your app and the WebDriverAgent is unlocked. Especialy if you are using ssh. General symptom to look for is codesign failure.
• If you have custom elements in your app, they will not be automatable by
  UIAutomation (and therefore Appium) by default. You need to set the
  accessibility status to ‘enabled’ on them. The way to do this in code is:

center
[myCustomView setAccessibilityEnabled:YES];

• Tests on iOS may exhibit symptoms similar to a memory leak including sluggish
  performance or hangs. If you experience this problem, it’s likely due to a
  known issue with NSLog. One option is to remove NSLog from your code.
  However, there are several more nuanced approaches that may also help without
  requiring that you refactor.

### Workaround 1
NSLog is a macro and can be redefined. E.g.,
«`objectivec
// You’ll need to define TEST or TEST2 and then recompile.

#ifdef TEST
#define NSLog(…) _BlackHoleTestLogger(VA_ARGS);
#endif // TEST
#ifdef TEST2
#define NSLog(…) _StdoutTestLogger(VA_ARGS);
#endif // TEST2

void _BlackHoleTestLogger(NSString *format, …) {
//
}

void _StdoutTestLogger(NSString *format, …) {
va_list argumentList;
va_start(argumentList, format);
NSMutableString * message = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithFormat:format
arguments:argumentList];

  printf(message);

  va_end(argumentList);
  [message release];

}
«`

### Workaround 2
Manually replace the underlying function that NSLog wraps. This method was recommended by
Apple in a similar context.

«`objectivec
extern void _NSSetLogCStringFunction(void()(const char , unsigned, BOOL));

static void _GarbageFreeLogCString(const char *message, unsigned length, BOOL withSyslogBanner) {
fprintf(stderr, «%sn», message);
}

int main (int argc, const char argv[]) {
NSAutoreleasePool pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
int exitCode;

 setbuf(stderr, NULL);

 _NSSetLogCStringFunction(_GarbageFreeLogCString);
 exitCode = WOApplicationMain(@"Application", argc, argv);
 [pool release];
 return exitCode;

}
«`

Webview/Hybrid/Safari app support

• Make Sure you enable the ‘Web Inspector’ on the real device.
• Make Sure you enable the Safari — Advance Preferences- Developer menu for
  simulators.
• Make sure you are properly switching contexts using the context appium commands provided by your client library.
• If you getting this error: select_port() failed, when trying to open the
  proxy, see this discussion
• In a Safari session, if the logs indicate that the initial url cannot be entered, make sure that
  you have the software keyboard enabled. See this discussion.

Once you’ve tried the above steps and your issue still isn’t resolved,
here’s what you can do:

If you’re having trouble getting Appium working and the error messages Appium
provides are not clear, join the discussion group
and send a message. Please include the following:

• How you’re running Appium (Appium.app, npm, source)
• What operating system you are using
• What device and version you are testing against (i.e. Android 4.4, or iOS 7.1)
• Whether you are running against a real device or a simulator/emulator
• The client-side and server-side errors you’re getting (i.e.,
  «In Python this is the exception I get in my test script,
  and here’s a link to a paste of the Appium server output)
• Per above, it’s very important to include a paste of the Appium server
  output when it’s run in verbose mode so that we can diagnose what’s going on.

If you’ve found what you believe is a bug, go straight to the issue tracker
and submit an issue describing the bug and a repro case.

Known Issues

• If you’ve installed Node from the Node website, it requires that you use sudo
  for npm. This is not ideal. Try to get node with nvm,
  n or brew install node instead!
• Webview support works on real iOS devices with a proxy, see discussion.
• Sometimes iOS UI elements become invalidated milliseconds after they are
  found. This results in an error that looks like (null) cannot be tapped.
  Sometimes the only solution is to put the finding-and-clicking code in a retry
  block.
• Appium may have difficulties finding the node executable if you’ve
  installed Node and npm via MacPorts. You must make sure that the MacPorts bin
  folder (/opt/local/bin by default) is added to PATH somewhere in your
  ~/.profile, ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc.

Specific Errors

7 ответов

Appium mobile testing is an open-source tool and system for automating mobile web, native, and hybrid applications on both iOS and Android platforms. It runs great on native apps – the ones that are written utilizing the iOS or Android SDKs, mobile web applications that are reached utilizing a mobile browser and hybrid apps that are using the webview and are covered within your app.

It has NO reliance on Mobile device OS. Since APPIUM has wrapper or framework that makes the translation of Selenium Webdriver commands into UIAutomator (Android) or UIAutomation (iOS) commands relying upon the type of device, no OS type.

All languages that have Selenium client libraries are supported by the Appium such as – Objective-C, Java, JavaScript with node.js, Ruby, PHP, Python, C#, and so on.

But today, we’ll try to propose the fresh look at this system. There are several diverse blogs out there that concentrate on Appium and give tips and tricks for different topics. In this blog series, we will disclose to you the possible errors one might encounter using Appium.

Let’s begin.

• Error #1. Could not connect to Lockdownd (on iOS)

Exiting
sudochmod -R 777 /var/db/lockdown/
In case that you still face the problem then use below steps to solve the issue-
try to uninstall the ios-webkit-debug-proxy and install once more.
brew uninstall — force libimobiledeviceios-webkit-debug-proxy
brew install — HEAD libimobiledeviceios-webkit-debug-proxy
OR
brew update
brew reinstall — HEAD libimobiledevice
brew reinstall -s ios-webkit-debug-proxy

• Error #2. Misusing XPath

Misusing XPath locators is a mutual mistake with Selenium, in spite of the fact that it’s more unfortunate error in the Appium environment.

Appium XPath is a great method to discover elements, yet it accompanies a really enormous execution cost. This is because of XML-and XPath-type questions, that are not locally given by Apple and Google – in any event in the form that we’d prefer them to be.

Also Read : How to Install Appium Server and Node on Windows through Command Line

This drives Appium to make a ton of costly calls in the engine to help to discover elements assuredly when utilizing XPath.

So, you can utilize XPath, however, there are far superior locator methods you can apply – such as the accessibility IDs.

• Error #3. Script taking longer to Load (on iOS)

The script will be taking forever to load and launch on a real device.

Try these ways to solve the error –

If before installed, then uninstall or delete the WebDriverAgent app from your real test simulator or device.

In case that uninstalling doesn’t fix the issue, restart the mobile and attempt running your tests.

• Error #4. The Issue during swiping down action on the iOS Device

When the configuration is done and the execution is triggered, strangely there are issues simply for the scripts in which there was a swipe down action to perform for opening the spotlight search on the phone.

There is a potential suspect for this unknown server error. This is –

driver.manage().window().getSize();
The reason behind the error was WDA. So, clean it and build it over.
1. Open the WebDriverAgent.xcodeproj in Xcode and choose WebDriverAgentRunner in the scheme prior to developing, ensure that it is signed.
2. Start the runner by running the tests.
3. In case all is fine, the screen on the device will become black and afterward revert to the application screen. The newly installed WebDriverAgentRunner. on the phone is seen.
4. The server is working while the tests run.

• Error #5. Found Internal Error while running the Command. (on iOS)

Error: Could not initialize ios-deploy make sure it is installed (npm install -g ios-deploy) and works on your system.
You have to ensure that you have enabled turned ON the UI Automation toggle running Appium scripts for the device.
Settings > Developer > Enable UI Automation
Additionally, note that while working with native safari, make sure you begin the iOS debug proxy, also that the connection to your device is set prior to starting of the appium server either through app UI or the command line.
In the terminal, run these commands –
ios_webkit_debug_proxy -c <device udid>:27753
Start appium
Now try running your test scripts.

• Error #6. Could not find adb. Please set the ANDROID_HOME environment variable with the Android SDK root directory path.

You apparently need to configure the SDK root directory path in system ‘Environment Variables’ under ‘Path’ column.
Error- The following desired capabilities are needed but were not provided: platformName, device Name
Add needed capabilities: platformName, device Name in APPIUM script.

• Error #7. Error on connecting the real iOS device with Appium server

When you open an app through Appium server though get the following error –
An unknown server-side error occurred while processing the command. Original error: Unknown device or simulator UDID: ‘046e4469d6cb14ff57e378599bd4b1d09390472b’
{
“platformName”: “iOS”,
“deviceName”: “iPad”,
“automationName”: “XCUITest”,
“udid”: “046e4469d6cb14ff57e378599bd4b1d09390472b”,
“bundleId”: “com.***”,
“platformVersion”: “11.2.6”,
“app”: “/Users/***/***.ipa”
}
To solve the issue, use the below-given configuration –
{
“platformName”: “iOS”,
“platformVersion”: “10.2.1″,
“deviceName”: “——”,
“udid”: “fdbe0d55ced1fd6fa842681b6a058438573fb762″,
“app”: “/Users/—-/—/—/—.ipa”,
“automationName”: “XCUITest”
}
Depending upon app path, it will detect the app that needs to be loaded, further, you have to implement the iOS version (device OS version for the device or XCode ios simulator version for simulator/).

• Error #8. Xcode9.1+IOS 11.1.2+APPIUM1.2.7 runtime throws exceptions,’11.1.2’does not exist in the list of simctl SDKs. (on iOS)

Run with the accessible version of the simulator.

• Error #9. Running iOS test.

Error message – [INST STDERR] posix spawn failure; aborting launch
Your app is not assembled precisely for the device or simulator.

• Error #10. Issue while running mobile safari test.

Error message – Could not prepare mobile safari with version ‘7.1’
You apparently have to run the authorize script newly to make the iOS SDK files writeable.

• Error #11. Appium Java JUnit test package unzip failed (on Linux x86_64 or Mac)

You will see the following error message –
Warning
We could not open your test ZIP file. Please verify that the file is valid and try again.
You have to ensure that you can unzip the test package with no errors. In the following case, the name of the package is zip-with-dependencies.zip.
Copy your test package in your working directory. Then run the given command –
$ unzip zip-with-dependencies.zip
When you have successfully unzipped the package, you can see the operating directory tree structure by running the below-given command –
$ tree .
A valid Appium Java JUnit package must provide an output as following –
|— acme-android-appium-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar (this is the JAR containing everything built from the ./src/main directory)
|— acme-android-appium-1.0-SNAPSHOT-tests.jar (this is the JAR containing everything built from the ./src/test directory)
|— zip-with-dependencies.zip (this .zip file contains all of the items)
`— dependency-jars  (this is the directory that contains all of your dependencies, built as JAR files)
|— com.some-dependency.bar-4.1.jar
|— com.another-dependency.thing-1.0.jar
|— joda-time-2.7.jar
`— log4j-1.2.14.jar