'Exception from HRESULT: 0X800A01B6' error in PowerShell when trying to enter login information to Facebook

Question

I have this code written in PowerShell:

$username = "xxxxxx";
$password = "xxxxxx";
$url = "www.facebook.com/login";

$ie = New-Object -com internetexplorer.application;
$ie.visible = $true;
$ie.navigate($url);

($ie.document.getElementsByName("email") |select -first 1).value = $username;

And there is when I get this error message:

Exception from HRESULT: 0x800A01B6
At line:1 char:1
+ ($ie.document.getElementsByName("email") |select -first 1).value = $u ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (:) [], NotSupportedException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.NotSupportedException

Any solutions?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Workaround Always use the following methods instead of the native ones:

IHTMLDocument3_getElementsByTagName   
IHTMLDocument3_getElementsByName
IHTMLDocument3_getElementByID

Thanks to Paul Lim Here

Answer 2

This might happen as IE is still loading the page or parsing DOM. Try waiting for IE not to be busy before accessing page elements. A simple check for IE's Busy property will do. Like so,

$username="myname"
$password="mypass"
$url = "www.facebook.com/login"
$ie = New-Object -com internetexplorer.application
$ie.visible = $true
$ie.navigate($url)

# Sleep while IE is busy. Check 10 times per second, adjust delay as needed
while($ie.Busy) { Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 100 }

# IE is not busy with document anymore, pass credentials and click the logon    
($ie.document.getElementsByName("email") |select -first 1).value = $username
($ie.document.getElementsByName("pass") |select -first 1).value = $password
($ie.document.getElementsByName("login") |select -first 1).click()