Selenium Webdriver in Python - files download directory change in Chrome preferences

Parzival picture Parzival · Aug 2, 2013 · Viewed 70.1k times · Source

I'm using Selenium Webdriver (in Python) to automate the downloading of thousands of files. I want to set Chrome's download folder programmatically. After reading this, I tried this:

chromepath = '/Users/thiagomarzagao/Desktop/searchcode/chromedriver'
desired_caps = {'prefs': {'download': {'default_directory': '/Users/thiagomarzagao/Desktop/downloaded_files/'}}}
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path = chromepath, desired_capabilities = desired_caps)

No good. Downloads still go to the default download folder ("/Users/thiagomarzagao/Downloads").

Any thoughts?

(Python 2.7.5, Selenium 2.2.0, Chromedriver 2.1.210398, Mac OS X 10.6.8)

Answer

MervS picture MervS · Sep 26, 2013

The following worked for me:

chromeOptions = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
prefs = {"download.default_directory" : "/some/path"}
chromeOptions.add_experimental_option("prefs",prefs)
chromedriver = "path/to/chromedriver.exe"
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=chromedriver, chrome_options=chromeOptions)

Source: https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/capabilities