I’m working on a web scraping project using scrapy-playwright because the target website has dynamic content. Everything works fine when I run the browser in visible mode, but as soon as I switch to headless mode, I get an ERR_HTTP2_PROTOCOL_ERROR.
I’ve tried several solutions including switching user agents, using proxy rotation, modifying playwright settings, and adding delays to simulate human behavior. Nothing seems to work.
From what I understand, this error happens when the server rejects the connection at the protocol level. Has anyone encountered this issue with scrapy-playwright? What configuration changes might help resolve this HTTP2 error in headless browser mode?
Switch to Chromium if ur using Firefox. Had the exact same problem last month - some sites just hate headless Firefox with HTTP2. Also check for Cloudflare protection. They’ve gotten really aggressive with headless detection lately.
The server’s probably detecting your headless browser and blocking it. Don’t just mess with launch arguments - change the browser context settings instead. Set a custom viewport that matches normal desktop resolutions and use page.add_init_script() to kill the webdriver property that screams ‘I’m a bot.’ I’ve also had luck with --max-connections-per-host=6 and --disable-background-timer-throttling to limit connection pooling. The server might be rejecting you for firing off too many requests at once or having weird timing. If you’re in a container, throw in --disable-dev-shm-usage - memory problems can show up as protocol errors.
I encountered a similar issue recently, and I found that the HTTP/2 multiplexing can indeed cause problems when switching to headless mode. To overcome this, I recommend forcing HTTP/1.1 by including --disable-features=VizDisplayCompositor and --disable-http2 in your setup for launching the browser. Additionally, using --disable-background-networking can prevent automated network behaviors that may trigger the server’s detection mechanisms.
Another effective method is adjusting the TLS fingerprint and disabling the automation detection by utilizing --disable-blink-features=AutomationControlled along with custom headers that accurately reflect your regular browser. These adjustments can help make your requests appear more legitimate to the server.