“AttributeError: ‘WebDriver’ object has no attribute ‘find_element_by_name’” is an error you will face when you upgrade Selenium to version 4.3.0. What is this error, and how to resolve it? In this article, we will demonstrate this error and hand you all possible solutions to solve it.

How Does The Error “AttributeError: ‘WebDriver’ object has no attribute ‘find_element_by_name’” Occur?

Web Elements or elements are essential parts of a web page. Elements are anything you see on a website, and each element represents a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) element. To locate these elements, we have to go through an entangled phase which is a nightmare to find on the web page and automate. Selenium Software appears as an efficient tool for locating Web Elements that will help us with this task.

The error “AttributeError: ‘WebDriver’ object has no attribute ‘find_element_by_name’” turns up since the latest version of Selenium arrives. Find_element_by_name, a syntax in Selenium from version 4.2.0 or earlier, is to locate Web Elements.

But from Selenium version 4.3.0, they announced removing two commands, find_element_by_* and find_elements_by_*.

Selenium 4.3.0 * Deprecated find_element_by_* and find_elements_by_* are now removed (#10712) * Deprecated Opera support has been removed (#10630)

We have figured out the reason this error shows up now. To solve this error, below are two methods for you to follow step by step.

How To Solve The Error “AttributeError: ‘WebDriver’ object has no attribute ‘find_element_by_name’”?

METHOD 1: Use find_element

According to their official documents, the old API driver.find_element_by_xxx is now deprecated. From Selenium 3.4.0, the new method syntax find_element is in use instead of find_element_by_* or  find_elements_by_*. Because of that, using the new command will solve this problem easily. You can use it like this

driver.find_element("name", "q")

For example

driver.find_element(By.XPATH, " ") 
driver.find_element(By.CLASS_NAME, " ")

With this solution, you just need to replace your codes with this new one.

METHOD 2: Downgrade Selenium Version

If you do not want to change your codes, this method will suit you better. Downgrading Selenium to previous versions, such as 4.2.0 or prior, will fix this problem. When you try to downgrade, a warning message will show up.

Warning (from warnings module): File "<pyshell#8>", line 1 DeprecationWarning: find_element_by_xpath is deprecated. Please use find_element(by=By.XPATH, value=xpath) instead

You are not doing anything wrong; just ignore it, and the program still runs fine. But this message means you should not use the earlier versions. The old approach syntax find_element_by_* is no longer suitable, and you should update to the new one!

If you are fine with using the old versions of Selenium, downgrading the library by making an argument –force-reinstall with pip. Also, name the version you want to install. You can install Selenium version 4.2.0 after overwriting the snippet to the current Selenium version as follows.

pip install selenium==4.2.0 --force-reinstall

Now you can continue to program your project without changing your work.

Although, you should consider the pros and cons of this method. As pros, you do not need to replace your code if you have many projects that are too large. And cons, the library may not give you the newest features and complete support.

Conclusion

The error “AttributeError: ‘WebDriver’ object has no attribute ‘find_element_by_name’” occurs when you use find_element_by_* or find_elements_by_* in Selenium 4.3.0 and prior. This article gives you information about this error and solutions to resolve it. We hope you find this article helpful. If you find any trouble while solving this issue, comment below, and we will answer your question. Thank you for reading!

Read more:

→ AttributeError: ‘WebDriver’ object has no attribute ‘find_element_by_css_selector’ – How To Solve This Error?