Error communicating with the remote browser. It may have died. Selenium Web driver

Question

Here is my error log:

Apr 12, 2014 3:27:46 AM org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector tryConnect
INFO: I/O exception (java.net.SocketException) caught when connecting to the target host: Permission denied: connect
Apr 12, 2014 3:27:46 AM org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector tryConnect
INFO: Retrying connect
Apr 12, 2014 3:27:46 AM org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector tryConnect
INFO: I/O exception (java.net.SocketException) caught when connecting to the target host: Permission denied: connect
Apr 12, 2014 3:27:46 AM org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector tryConnect
INFO: Retrying connect
Apr 12, 2014 3:27:46 AM org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector tryConnect
INFO: I/O exception (java.net.SocketException) caught when connecting to the target host: Permission denied: connect
Apr 12, 2014 3:27:46 AM org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector tryConnect
INFO: Retrying connect
org.openqa.selenium.remote.UnreachableBrowserException: Error communicating with the remote browser. It may have died.
Build info: version: '2.41.0', revision: '3192d8a', time: '2014-03-27 17:18:15'
System info: host: 'prgi-PC', ip: '192.168.1.9', os.name: 'Windows 7', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '6.1', java.version: '1.7.0_51'
Driver info: driver.version: RemoteWebDriver
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:589)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement.execute(RemoteWebElement.java:268)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement.findElements(RemoteWebElement.java:187)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement.findElementsByTagName(RemoteWebElement.java:264)
    at org.openqa.selenium.By$ByTagName.findElements(By.java:323)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement.findElements(RemoteWebElement.java:163)
    at com.sai.kiran.Test.main(Test.java:155)
Caused by: java.net.SocketException: Permission denied: connect
    at java.net.DualStackPlainSocketImpl.connect0(Native Method)
    at java.net.DualStackPlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(DualStackPlainSocketImpl.java:83)
    at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.doConnect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:339)
    at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:200)
    at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:182)
    at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(PlainSocketImpl.java:172)
    at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:392)
    at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:579)
    at org.apache.http.conn.scheme.PlainSocketFactory.connectSocket(PlainSocketFactory.java:117)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.DefaultClientConnectionOperator.openConnection(DefaultClientConnectionOperator.java:178)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.AbstractPoolEntry.open(AbstractPoolEntry.java:144)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.AbstractPooledConnAdapter.open(AbstractPooledConnAdapter.java:131)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector.tryConnect(DefaultRequestDirector.java:610)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector.execute(DefaultRequestDirector.java:445)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.doExecute(AbstractHttpClient.java:863)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient.execute(CloseableHttpClient.java:72)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient.execute(CloseableHttpClient.java:57)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.HttpCommandExecutor.fallBackExecute(HttpCommandExecutor.java:322)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.HttpCommandExecutor.execute(HttpCommandExecutor.java:301)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.internal.NewProfileExtensionConnection.execute(NewProfileExtensionConnection.java:165)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver$LazyCommandExecutor.execute(FirefoxDriver.java:362)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:568)
    ... 6 more

CODE:

FirefoxProfile profile = new FirefoxProfile();

String path="C:\\Users\\prgi\\Downloads\\listShack";
profile.setPreference("browser.download.folderList", 2);
profile.setPreference("browser.download.dir", path);

profile.setPreference("browser.download.manager.alertOnEXEOpen", false);

profile.setPreference("browser.helperApps.neverAsk.saveToDisk","application/msword,application/csv,text/csv,image/png ,image/jpeg");

profile.setPreference("browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting",
false);

profile.setPreference("browser.download.manager.focusWhenStarting",
false);
//profile.setPreference("browser.download.useDownloadDir",true);
profile.setPreference("browser.helperApps.alwaysAsk.force",
false);

profile.setPreference("browser.download.manager.alertOnEXEOpen", false);

profile.setPreference("browser.download.manager.closeWhenDone", false);

profile.setPreference("browser.download.manager.showAlertOnComplete", false);
profile.setPreference("browser.download.manager.useWindow",
false);

profile.setPreference("browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting",false);

profile.setPreference("services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting",
false);

profile.setPreference("pdfjs.disabled", true);

WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(profile);

and from here I am managing my elements..

note: It worked two days continuously 24/7 and today I am getting this error frequently.

Answer 1

Problem

I had the same problem running InternetExplorerDriver locally in Windows 7 - (IEDriverServer_Win32_2.42.0.zip)

org.openqa.selenium.remote.UnreachableBrowserException: Error communicating with the remote browser. It may have died.

When I checked the running processes under TaskManager, there were multiple IEDriverServer.exe processes running, that hadn't been cleaned up properly.

Solution

Running the following command, killed all running IEDriverServer.exe processes, and resolved this issue (for me).

taskkill /F /IM IEDriverServer.exe