'Webdrivers' executable may have wrong permissions. Please see https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/home

Question

I've looked around checked both documentations and have found no answer.

I've been trying to use InstaPy a instagram api for python. After failing with multiple errors and assuming InstaPy is just having some issues so i tried to raw code it using selinium. after inserting the example code and alter it to my liking i just made sure this one would work. I received a new error instead of the old one saying the permissions may not be right. I have tried reinstall and running as admin but nothing works. how do i fix this and/or what does this mean

Code:

import time
from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Chrome('C:\Webdrivers')  # Optional argument, if not specified will search path.
driver.get('http://www.google.com/xhtml');
time.sleep(5) # Let the user actually see something!
search_box = driver.find_element_by_name('q')
search_box.send_keys('ChromeDriver')
search_box.submit()
time.sleep(5) # Let the user actually see something!
driver.quit()

Error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python36-32\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\common\service.py", line 74, in start
    stdout=self.log_file, stderr=self.log_file)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python36-32\lib\subprocess.py", line 707, in __init__
    restore_signals, start_new_session)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python36-32\lib\subprocess.py", line 990, in _execute_child
    startupinfo)
PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Webdrivers\RawBot.py", line 5, in <module>
    driver = webdriver.Chrome('C:\Webdrivers')  # Optional argument, if not specified will search path.
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python36-32\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\chrome\webdriver.py", line 62, in __init__
    self.service.start()
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python36-32\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\common\service.py", line 86, in start
    os.path.basename(self.path), self.start_error_message)
selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: 'Webdrivers' executable may have wrong permissions. Please see https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/home

Answer 1

This error message...

WebDriverException: Message: 'Webdrivers' executable may have wrong permissions.

...implies that the ChromeDriver variant you are trying to use have wrong permissions.

---

You seem to have tried out:

driver = webdriver.Chrome('C:\Webdrivers')  # Optional argument, if not specified will search system $PATH variable.

A few words:

• If your underlying os is windows:

  • You have to download chromedriver_win32.zip from the ChromeDriver Download Location and unzip it for usage.
  • Additionally, if you are explicitly specifying the Chromedriver binary path you have to append the binary extension as well, effectively i.e. chromedriver.exe.
  • While mentioning the Chromedriver binary path you have to either use the single forward slash i.e. (/) along with the raw (r) switch or you have to use the escaped backslash i.e. (\\).

  • So your effective line of code will be :

    driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=r'C:/path/to/chromedriver.exe')
    

• If your underlying os is linux:

  • You have to download chromedriver_linux64 from the ChromeDriver Download Location and untar it for usage.
  • Additionally, if you are explicitly specifying the Chromedriver binary path you don't have to provide any extension for the executable binary, effectively i.e. chromedriver.
  • While mentioning the Chromedriver binary path you have to use the single forward slash i.e. (/).

  • So your effective line of code will be :

    driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path='/path/to/chromedriver')
    

• If your underlying os is macos:

  • You have to download chromedriver_mac64 from the ChromeDriver Download Location and untar it for usage.
  • Additionally, if you are explicitly specifying the Chromedriver binary path you don't have to provide any extension for the executable binary, effectively i.e. chromedriver.
  • While mentioning the chromedriver binary path you have to use the single forward slash i.e. (/).

  • So your effective line of code will be :

    driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path='/path/to/chromedriver')