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Why the screenshot is blank
Protractor drives a real browser through WebDriverJS. A WebDriver screenshot command captures the viewport of the top-level browsing context and returns PNG data encoded as base64. It records whatever state exists when the command runs.
With a Cucumber or similar After hook, the sequence can accidentally become:
- The scenario fails.
- The browser is restarted because
restartBrowserBetweenTestsis enabled, or because the hook callsbrowser.restart(). - The failure hook asks WebDriver for a screenshot.
- The screenshot contains a blank, newly opened page rather than the failed scenario.
This is a lifecycle-ordering problem reported for a Protractor/Cucumber setup, not proof that every Protractor version or runner orders hooks identically. Verify the order in your own framework, runner and installed versions.
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Check the configuration first
Find the setting
Open the Protractor configuration file used by the failing job, commonly a file such as protractor.conf.js, and search for:
restartBrowserBetweenTests: trueThe documented default is false. If the property is absent, Protractor normally does not restart between tests. Also check whether a helper, custom framework adapter or hook calls browser.restart() directly.
Decide whether a restart is required
Restarting can provide stronger isolation when tests leave behind cookies, local storage, windows or other browser state. The Protractor configuration warning says that enabling the option can slow tests drastically; it is a warning about configuration cost, not a published timing benchmark. If your tests do not require a fresh browser process for every test, compare the default setting with the isolation benefit before accepting that cost.
Capture before restarting
The essential fix is to make the screenshot operation finish before any restart begins. Return or await the screenshot promise so the hook cannot proceed early.
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Promise-based Cucumber-style hook
This pattern captures the viewport, attaches the PNG to the scenario, and only then restarts the browser:
After(async function (scenario) {
if (!scenario.result || scenario.result.status !== 'failed') {
return;
}
const pngBase64 = await browser.takeScreenshot();
this.attach(Buffer.from(pngBase64, 'base64'), 'image/png');
// Restart only after capture and attachment have completed.
await browser.restart();
});The exact attachment API differs between Cucumber versions. If this.attach is callback-based in your version, wrap it in a promise and await that promise as well. The important ordering is screenshot command, attachment completion, then restart.
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Explicit promise chain
For runners that do not support async/await, return the complete chain:
After(function (scenario) {
if (!scenario.result || scenario.result.status !== 'failed') {
return Promise.resolve();
}
return browser.takeScreenshot()
.then(function (pngBase64) {
return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
try {
this.attach(Buffer.from(pngBase64, 'base64'), 'image/png');
resolve();
} catch (error) {
reject(error);
}
}.bind(this));
}.bind(this))
.then(function () {
return browser.restart();
});
});Adapt the attachment call to your reporter. Do not start the restart in a separate, unreturned promise: the runner may finish the hook while capture is still pending.
Two reliable configuration patterns
Pattern A: leave automatic restarts disabled
Set the option to its documented default and perform an explicit restart after the failure artifact has been captured:
exports.config = {
restartBrowserBetweenTests: false
};Then place await browser.restart() after screenshot attachment in the hook. This makes the order visible in one place and lets you restart only where isolation is needed.
Pattern B: keep automatic restarts, move the capture earlier
If every test must use a fresh browser, retain:
exports.config = {
restartBrowserBetweenTests: true
};Move failure capture to a hook that is guaranteed to run before Protractor performs its between-test restart. The community report that motivated this fix used an After hook and solved the blank image by capturing and attaching first, then calling browser.restart(). Do not assume that another framework schedules hooks the same way; inspect its lifecycle documentation and log the actual order.
A step-by-step diagnostic sequence
- Confirm the symptom. Open the attachment and determine whether it is a blank page, a browser start page or an image with no application content.
- Record versions and runner. Note Protractor, WebDriver, browser, driver and test-framework versions. The reported failure does not establish a universal affected-version range.
- Search all restart paths. Check
restartBrowserBetweenTests, calls tobrowser.restart(), and shared hooks or wrappers that may restart indirectly. - Log lifecycle boundaries. Log immediately before screenshot, immediately after screenshot data is returned, immediately after attachment, and immediately before and after restart.
- Temporarily disable automatic restart. Set the option to
falseand run one failing scenario. If the image is now correct, ordering is the leading explanation. - Restore isolation deliberately. Either keep automatic restart off and restart after capture, or move capture to a pre-restart hook while retaining the setting.
- Validate the attachment bytes. Decode the base64 value and confirm the reporter receives PNG data, not an empty string or a promise object.
When ordering is not the cause
A blank capture alone cannot identify the lifecycle event that produced it. If the browser was still alive when the command ran, inspect the state at that instant:
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- URL and navigation: log
await browser.getCurrentUrl()immediately before capture and verify navigation has completed. - Window context: check that the test has not switched to a closed or unintended window.
- Frame context: switch back to the expected top-level browsing context before taking the screenshot.
- Rendering timing: wait for the application’s readiness condition rather than relying only on a fixed delay.
- Browser process health: look for driver disconnects, crashes or a session that has already been invalidated.
- Reporter handling: verify that the report stores binary PNG data correctly and that the MIME type is
image/png.
WebDriver captures the top-level viewport, not every possible browser surface. A page rendered inside an unexpected frame or window may therefore look empty even though another context contains the application.
Common errors and fixes
The screenshot promise is not returned
Symptom: the hook ends, the browser restarts, and the attachment is empty or shows a new page.
Fix: return the promise chain or use await for screenshot, attachment and restart in that order.
The restart happens in another hook
Symptom: moving code inside the visible After hook changes nothing.
Fix: search shared support files and framework adapters for browser.restart() and log every hook. A restart in an earlier hook still invalidates the page before capture.
Automatic and explicit restarts are both enabled
Symptom: the browser is restarted twice, or the next scenario starts with an unexpected session.
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Fix: choose one owner for the restart. Disable the configuration option if your hook performs the restart, or remove the explicit call and place capture before the framework-managed restart.
Attachment API is callback-based
Symptom: the screenshot command completes, but the report has no image.
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Fix: wrap the callback in a promise and await it. A synchronous-looking attachment call may still enqueue asynchronous work.
The page is blank even with restarts disabled
Symptom: the same blank image appears when no restart occurs.
Fix: investigate URL, window, frame, navigation, rendering and driver health. The restart setting is then not established as the cause.
The suite became much slower
Symptom: enabling the option increases runtime substantially.
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Fix: measure your own suite, identify tests that genuinely require process-level isolation, and consider explicit cleanup or targeted restarts. Protractor documents a significant slowdown warning but does not provide a universal time figure.
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- Capture only on failure unless you need diagnostic images for every scenario.
- Use one hook that owns artifact capture and one clearly defined place that owns restarting.
- Keep the screenshot operation and attachment in the same awaited control flow.
- Include the scenario name, current URL and timestamp in logs, but avoid logging credentials or page secrets.
- Preserve the original failure if screenshot capture fails; diagnostic code should not hide the test assertion.
- Run a small matrix with automatic restart disabled, explicit restart after capture, and automatic restart enabled with a pre-restart capture hook.
- Review parallel execution separately. A shared global
browserreference can make one scenario capture another scenario’s state if sessions are not isolated.
Or skip the browser setup
For screenshots that are not tied to a live Protractor failure hook, ScreenshotNeo provides a single HTTP request. It accepts consent banners before capture and removes more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups and chat widgets. Bot checks or CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads and cache hits are not billed, and the response identifies the result with X-Page-Verdict and X-Billed headers. Its MCP server lets Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients call take_screenshot, get_page_info and capture_pdf.
See the parameter reference and complete options in the ScreenshotNeo documentation. A basic cURL request is:
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webpThe equivalent Python request is:
import requests
r = requests.get("https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot", params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://stripe.com"}, timeout=90)
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)Node.js:
const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://stripe.com' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);You can still control full-page capture, lazy-image loading, CSS-selector element capture, dark mode, device and viewport, retina scale, PDF paper and page ranges, custom CSS or JavaScript, clicks, hidden selectors, waits, blocked resources, headers, cookies, user agent, authorization, timezone, geolocation, transparency, resizing, cache TTL, signed image links, asynchronous webhooks, bulk capture of up to 100 URLs per call, usage reporting and OpenAPI-compatible parameters.
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FAQ
What does restartBrowserBetweenTests do?
It tells Protractor to restart the browser between each test. Its documented default is false.
Does a blank screenshot prove that Protractor restarted too early?
No. It is a strong hypothesis when the restart precedes the capture, but the image could also reflect the wrong window or frame, incomplete navigation, rendering timing, driver failure or reporter handling.
Should I always disable browser restarts?
No. Keep the isolation that your tests require. Disable automatic restarts only when a fresh process is unnecessary or when you replace it with an explicit, correctly ordered restart.
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Can I capture a screenshot after calling `browser.restart()`?
Only if you first navigate and wait for the new session to render the intended page. It will not be a screenshot of the failed pre-restart state.
Will ScreenshotNeo replace Protractor failure screenshots?
No. It is useful for independent URL captures and automation; a Protractor failure artifact still needs to be captured from the test browser before that browser is restarted.
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