Puppeteer creating multiple browser windows when setting up context with cookies

Other Questions Puppeteer
1

I’m having trouble with Puppeteer creating two browser windows when I try to set up cookies for a browser context. What I want is to apply cookies to the main browser window without creating additional windows.

The issue is that my code opens two separate browser windows. The first one just has a single tab showing about:blank. The second window also starts with about:blank but then navigates to my target URL.

I found that using page.setCookie right after puppeteer.launch works for a single window, but this approach doesn’t apply cookies to the whole context like I need.

Running on Ubuntu 22.04 with Chrome for Testing 131.0.6778.87.

const puppeteerExtra = require('puppeteer-extra')
const fileSystem = require('fs');
const cookieFile = "session-cookies.json";
const StealthMode = require('puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth')
const { createPointer } = require("ghost-cursor")
puppeteerExtra.use(StealthMode())

// ... cookie loading code ...

sessionCookies = JSON.parse(sessionCookies)

let launchArgs = []
if(proxyServer) {
  launchArgs.push(`--proxy-server=${proxyServer}`)
}

puppeteerExtra.launch({ headless: false, args: launchArgs }).then(async browserInstance => {
  const newContext = await browserInstance.createBrowserContext()
  await newContext.setCookie(...sessionCookies)

  let newPage = await newContext.newPage()
  let customUserAgent = userAgent || defaultAgent
  console.log('Starting login with saved session..')
  await newPage.setUserAgent(customUserAgent)
  await newPage.setDefaultNavigationTimeout(120000)

  await newPage.goto(targetUrl)
  console.log('Session login complete')
})
response.send("browser started with session data");

Any suggestions on how to fix this dual window issue would be great.

2

You’re getting multiple windows because Puppeteer creates a default browser context when it launches, then your code creates another one. I’ve run into this before - easiest fix is just using the default context instead of making a new one. Grab the default context’s pages with browserInstance.pages() and set cookies on the first page: const pages = await browserInstance.pages(); await pages[0].setCookie(...sessionCookies). No extra contexts needed and your cookies still work across the whole session. Plus the default context handles cookie persistence way better than the ones you create manually.

3

use the default context instead of creating a new one. call browserInstance.defaultBrowserContext() - it’ll utilize the existing window instead of spawning another. fixed the same multiple windows issue for me.

4

This happens because Puppeteer opens a default browser window when you launch it, then you’re creating another browser context which opens a second window. I ran into this exact issue with cookie management in my automation scripts. Don’t create a new browser context after launch - either work with the default context or use the incognito option during launch. Try getting the default context first: const defaultContext = browserInstance.defaultBrowserContext() then set cookies on that context. You could also launch with { headless: false, args: [...launchArgs, '--new-window'] } but that probably won’t fix the real problem. Each browser context creates its own window in non-headless mode - that’s the key thing to understand.