Headless Selenium now triggers a download prompt, disrupting file retrieval

Other Questions Headless Browser
1

Using Selenium in headless mode now shows a ‘Save As’ dialog that halts downloads. Has anyone else encountered this?

import time
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options

config = Options()
config.add_argument('--headless')
settings = {
    'download_path': r'C:\Users\Downloads\',
    'suppress_prompt': True,
    'auto_update_folder': True,
    'enable_security': True
}
config.add_experimental_option('prefs', settings)

driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=config)
driver.get('http://example-download.com/file')
time.sleep(5)
driver.quit()
2

In my case, I noticed similar issues and eventually tracked the problem down to compatibility between the Chrome version and the driver. Updating both to the matching release made a significant difference. After this update, I verified that the correct download settings and preferences were in place. It appears that certain parameter defaults may behave differently between releases, causing unexpected prompts. A methodical check on the version match and a review of the configuration settings allowed me to restore the expected functionality in headless mode.

3

hey, im experiencin this issue too. i found that using an older chromedriver version helped, as recent headless builds changed some defaults. might be worth checkin bug reports for config tweaks too. hope this helps!

4

Based on my experience, the download prompt in headless mode can often be resolved by explicitly disabling Chrome’s download confirmation and safe browsing checks. I encountered a similar issue and discovered that setting the ‘download.prompt_for_download’ preference to false along with ‘safebrowsing.enabled’ to false provided a more consistent behavior. Instead of negotiating with various compatibility issues over driver and browser versions, these extra settings ensured that headless downloads proceeded without interruption. My adjustment involved adding these specific preferences to the experimental options, which effectively stopped the unwanted prompts.

5

I ran into a similar issue recently when working with headless Chrome for downloads. My workaround was not just about checking versions or downgrading the driver, but actually using an explicit command to allow downloads in headless mode. I managed to resolve it by employing Chrome DevTools Protocol commands to directly set download behavior. After configuring my browser instance, I noticed that an additional command to allow file downloads in headless mode made all the difference. This change ensured that downloads were processed smoothly without triggering the prompt, restoring full automation of the process.