Chrome fails to launch with Puppeteer on Heroku deployment

Other Questions Puppeteer
1

I have a web application that I pushed to Heroku and I included the Puppeteer buildpack for Heroku in my setup.

When I check the deployment logs using heroku logs -t, I see this error:

2018-09-07T13:16:10.870497+00:00 app[web.1]: Error: Chrome launch failed!
2018-09-07T13:16:10.870512+00:00 app[web.1]: [0907/131610.045486:FATAL:zygote_host_impl_linux.cc(116)] Sandbox not available! Please update kernel or check documentation for SUID sandbox development. For immediate fix, try --no-sandbox flag (not recommended for production).

The deployment goes through successfully but when I try to actually use the app it crashes. Has anyone run into this sandbox issue before? What configuration am I missing to make Puppeteer work properly in the Heroku environment?

2

The sandbox error you’re experiencing is quite common when deploying Puppeteer on Heroku. I encountered it myself initially. Heroku’s infrastructure doesn’t support Chrome’s sandbox mode, so you need to disable it by adding --no-sandbox and --disable-setuid-sandbox to the puppeteer.launch() method. Additionally, consider including --disable-dev-shm-usage to avoid memory issues due to Heroku’s limited RAM capacities. You can be assured of security as Heroku dynos already operate in a secure containerized environment. This setup has proven reliable for me in production for over a year.

3

Puppeteer on Heroku is a nightmare. You’re constantly fighting memory limits, cold starts, and sandbox problems.

I ditched self-hosting and switched to Latenode for browser automation. It handles Chrome instances in the cloud - no deployment headaches.

Set up scraping, PDF generation, whatever you need. No buildpacks, no flags to mess with. Everything’s pre-configured.

Way better than fixing broken Heroku Chrome setups every few months.

4

same thing happened 2 me. u gotta set chrome’s path explicitly in ur launch config - heroku puts chrome in a diff spot. add executablePath: process.env.GOOGLE_CHROME_BIN w/ ur no-sandbox flags. Also double check ur puppeteer buildpack. I used jontewks/puppeteer and it worked.

5

Chrome’s security model clashes with Heroku’s containers. Besides the flags people already mentioned, you’ll need to tweak Puppeteer for Heroku’s memory limits. I had luck setting executablePath explicitly and adding --single-process so Chrome doesn’t spawn multiple processes that eat up your dyno’s memory. Double-check your buildpack order too - Puppeteer buildpack goes before your language buildpack. That kernel update error is BS since you can’t touch Heroku’s kernel anyway. Just focus on launch arguments and add proper error handling for when Chrome fails to start.