Selenium error: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document

Question

i write this code for download image from google from .txt file that has list of strings.

If try with only string into code work.

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
import time
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service
from webdriver_manager.chrome import ChromeDriverManager

driver = webdriver.Chrome(service=Service(r'C:\Users\Desktop\Temp\images\chromedriver.exe'))
driver.get('https://www.google.it/imghp?hl=it&authuser=0&ogbl')

time.sleep(10)

with open("file.txt") as file:
    for row in file.readlines():
        box = driver.find_element("xpath", '/html/body/div[1]/div[3]/form/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div/div[2]/input')
        box.send_keys(row)
        box.send_keys(Keys.ENTER)
        time.sleep(3)

        for i in range(1, 3):
            try:
                driver.find_element("xpath", '//*[@id="islrg"]/div[1]/div['+str(i)+']/a[1]/div[1]/img').screenshot(r'C:\Users\Desktop\Temp\images\downloads ('+str(i)+').png')
                time.sleep(3)
            except:
                pass

when execute the script:

• open chrome
• search image

but when try to download image the application crash, with this messages:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\Angelo\Desktop\Temp\images\try.py", line 16, in <module> box.send_keys(Keys.ENTER)
File "C:\Python310\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webelement.py", line 223, in send_keys self._execute(Command.SEND_KEYS_TO_ELEMENT,
File "C:\Python310\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webelement.py", line 396, in _execute return self._parent.execute(command, params)
File "C:\Python310\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 428, in execute self.error_handler.check_response(response)
File "C:\Python310\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\errorhandler.py", line 243, in check_response raise exception_class(message, screen, stacktrace)
selenium.common.exceptions.StaleElementReferenceException: Message: stale element reference: element is not attached to the page document (Session info: chrome=105.0.5195.102)
Stacktrace:
Backtrace:
Ordinal0 [0x0076DF13+2219795]
Ordinal0 [0x00702841+1779777]
Ordinal0 [0x0061423D+803389]
Ordinal0 [0x00616D04+814340]
Ordinal0 [0x00616BC2+814018]
Ordinal0 [0x00616E50+814672]
Ordinal0 [0x00643A4B+997963]
Ordinal0 [0x00643B21+998177]
Ordinal0 [0x0063C1D4+967124]
Ordinal0 [0x0065E7FC+1107964]
Ordinal0 [0x006394B4+955572]
Ordinal0 [0x0065EA14+1108500]
Ordinal0 [0x0066F192+1175954]
Ordinal0 [0x0065E616+1107478]
Ordinal0 [0x00637F89+950153]
Ordinal0 [0x00638F56+954198]
GetHandleVerifier [0x00A62CB2+3040210]
GetHandleVerifier [0x00A52BB4+2974420]
GetHandleVerifier [0x00806A0A+565546]
GetHandleVerifier [0x00805680+560544]
Ordinal0 [0x00709A5C+1808988]
Ordinal0 [0x0070E3A8+1827752]
Ordinal0 [0x0070E495+1827989]
Ordinal0 [0x007180A4+1867940]
BaseThreadInitThunk [0x772BFA29+25]
RtlGetAppContainerNamedObjectPath [0x778A7A9E+286]
RtlGetAppContainerNamedObjectPath [0x778A7A6E+238]

UPDATE: file.txt example:

popo
mumu
fiat
bmw
audi

Answer 1

By performing the search, the input element is changing.
You can use another, better locator to overcome this issue.
Also, using absolute XPaths or CSS Selectors is never a good idea since these locators are extremally fragile.
Try this:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
import time
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service
from webdriver_manager.chrome import ChromeDriverManager

driver = webdriver.Chrome(service=Service(r'C:\Users\Desktop\Temp\images\chromedriver.exe'))
driver.get('https://www.google.it/imghp?hl=it&authuser=0&ogbl')

time.sleep(10)

with open("file.txt") as file:
    for row in file.readlines():
        box = driver.find_element("xpath", "//input[@name='q']")
        box.send_keys(row)
        box.send_keys(Keys.ENTER)
        time.sleep(3)

        for i in range(1, 3):
            try:
                driver.find_element("xpath", '//*[@id="islrg"]/div[1]/div['+str(i)+']/a[1]/div[1]/img').screenshot(r'C:\Users\Desktop\Temp\images\downloads ('+str(i)+').png')
                time.sleep(3)
            except:
                pass

Also it is always preferably to use WebDriverWait explicit waits, not hardcoded sleeps whenever it is possible.
UPD
I have tested the following code and it worked correctly including creating the screenshots

import time

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver import Keys
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options

options = Options()
options.add_argument("start-maximized")


webdriver_service = Service('C:\webdrivers\chromedriver.exe')
driver = webdriver.Chrome(service=webdriver_service, options=options)
url = "https://www.google.it/imghp?hl=it&authuser=0&ogbl"
driver.get(url)
lines = ["kuku", "mumu", "popo"]
time.sleep(10)


for line in lines:
    box = driver.find_element("xpath", "//input[@name='q']")
    box.clear()
    box.send_keys(line)
    box.send_keys(Keys.ENTER)
    time.sleep(3)

    for i in range(1, 3):
        try:
            driver.find_element("xpath", '//*[@id="islrg"]/div[1]/div['+str(i)+']/a[1]/div[1]/img').screenshot(r'C:\Users\****\Desktop\downloads ('+str(i)+').png')
            time.sleep(3)
        except:
            pass