karatelabs/karate · error · DriverException

waitForAny timeout

Error message

waitForAny timeout: ${locators}

What it means

W3cDriver.waitForAny polls each locator in the array every retry interval until the timeout elapses; if none of the locators ever exists, it throws a DriverException listing all locators joined by comma. It is the any-of variant of waitFor used when one of several possible elements is expected.

Solutions

1. Test each locator individually in the browser to find the stale/incorrect one
2. Increase the timeout via the waitForAny overload or driver options
3. Confirm the triggering action (click/submit) actually happened before waiting
4. If neither branch should occur, add logging of page content (driver.html('body')) to diagnose

Example fix

// before
driver.waitForAny('#save-ok', '#save-error'); // neither appears, action not triggered
// after
driver.click('#save');
driver.waitForAny('#save-ok', '#save-error', 30000);

// pre-check candidates
boolean any = driver.exists(loc1) || driver.exists(loc2);

try {
    Element el = driver.waitForAny(loc1, loc2, timeout);
} catch (DriverException e) {
    // neither variant appeared; log page source and branch on failure
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling driver.waitForAny(locator1, locator2, ...) or waitForAny(String[]) where none of the supplied locators exists at any poll within the timeout; also raised when all candidate selectors are wrong or the page state never reaches any of the expected variants.

Common situations: Awaiting one of two dialog variants (success/error) that never appears because the action silently failed; copy-pasted locators that no longer match after a UI redesign; timeout too short for slow envs.

Understand the failure class

Background: Request timed out: what client-side request timeouts mean across libraries (Request timed out, TIMED_OUT, APITimeoutError) — this error's family across 39 libraries.

• Timeouts: ETIMEDOUT, deadlines, and hung requests — what actually expires when a request times out.

Related errors

• waitFor timeout
• waitForText timeout: expected
• waitForEnabled timeout
• waitUntil timeout: expression
• waitUntil timeout

AI-assisted analysis of karatelabs/karate@a22eb90246 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fded7b45276d5388. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at karate-core/src/main/java/io/karatelabs/driver/w3c/W3cDriver.java:553

    }

    @Override
    public Element waitForAny(String[] locators) {
        return waitForAny(locators, options.getTimeoutDuration());
    }

    @Override
    public Element waitForAny(String[] locators, java.time.Duration timeout) {
        long deadline = System.currentTimeMillis() + timeout.toMillis();
        while (System.currentTimeMillis() < deadline) {
            for (String locator : locators) {
                if (exists(locator)) {
                    return BaseElement.existing(this, locator);
                }
            }
            sleep(options.getRetryInterval());
        }
        throw new DriverException("waitForAny timeout: " + String.join(", ", locators));
    }

    @Override
    public Element waitForText(String locator, String expected) {
        return waitForText(locator, expected, options.getTimeoutDuration());
    }

    @Override
    public Element waitForText(String locator, String expected, java.time.Duration timeout) {
        long deadline = System.currentTimeMillis() + timeout.toMillis();
        while (System.currentTimeMillis() < deadline) {
            try {
                String text = text(locator);
                if (text != null && text.contains(expected)) {
                    return BaseElement.existing(this, locator);
                }
            } catch (Exception e) {
                // Element may not exist yet

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