Why Your Playwright Tests Keep Failing: Frames, Popups & Downloads

Hey fellow devs! 👋

Let me tell you about the weeks I spent debugging randomly failing Playwright tests. Everything worked locally but crashed in CI. Sound familiar?
Then I stumbled upon this insightful TestLeaf blog that completely changed my approach to the Playwright automation tool.

The Three Hidden Culprits

1. The iframe Blindspot Modern apps are full of iframes—payment forms, embedded widgets, you name it. I was using regular locators and wondering why tests failed silently. The breakthrough? You must explicitly target the

frame:
javascriptconst frame = page.frameLocator('iframe[name="checkout"]');
await frame.locator('#card-input').fill('4242...');

1. Popup Chaos in Headless Mode Popups behave differently when you can't see the browser. My tests passed locally but failed in CI every time. The fix was handling popup events explicitly:

`javascriptconst [popup] = await Promise.all([
  page.waitForEvent('popup'),
  page.click('a[target="_blank"]')
]);
await popup.waitForLoadState();

`

1. The Download Trap In headless environments like Docker, there's no downloads folder. Files vanish into the void. Through my Playwright automation course training, I learned to use download handlers:


javascriptconst [download] = await Promise.all([
page.waitForEvent('download'),
page.click('#download-btn')
]);
await download.saveAs('./reports/' + download.suggestedFilename());


My Journey with Playwright
I'm sharing this because I've been there—frustrated and ready to quit automation. But when I decided to properly learn Playwright through quality resources and structured training, these mysteries suddenly made sense.
The TestLeaf blog I referenced was a game-changer. It taught me that flaky tests aren't always about bad code—sometimes it's about understanding browser quirks that nobody warns you about.
If your tests are mysteriously failing, check these three areas first. They've solved 80% of my debugging nightmares.

Inspired by insights from TestLeaf's blog on Playwright test failures. Sometimes one blog post is all it takes to transform your automation journey.

Got similar war stories? Let's discuss in the comments! 🚀