This is an attempt to reproduce the issue downloading files in headless Chrome, as reported at: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=916113

Readme.markdown

Steps to reproduce

These steps run the same file download test twice:

• Once in GUI mode.
• Once in headless mode.

For me, the download never starts or completes in headless mode.

Bug: Issue 916113: Unable to download a file when using in headless mode (selenium, chromedriver)

Prerequisites:

• Chrome or Chromium installed.
• npm and node available on the path.

These instructions have been tested on both Windows and Ubuntu 18.04:

git clone https://gist.github.com/1fbde6d451a46c60519e7b92a67b2c38.git DownloadBugRepro
cd DownloadBugRepro
npm install
node index.js

index.js

require('chromedriver');
const fs = require('fs');
const glob = require('glob');
const process = require('process');
const uuidv4 = require('uuid/v4');
const tempDir = require('temp-dir')
const { Builder, By, Key, until, logging } = require('selenium-webdriver');
const chromeDriver = require('selenium-webdriver/chrome');

const sleep = ms => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));

async function download(shouldBeHeadless) {
    const options = new chromeDriver.Options();
    const newTempDir = `${tempDir}/${uuidv4()}`
    console.log(`Creating new directory for downloads at: ${newTempDir}`);
    fs.mkdirSync(newTempDir);
    if(shouldBeHeadless) {
        options.addArguments('headless', 'disable-gpu');
    }
    options.addArguments('no-sandbox');
    options.setUserPreferences({ 'download.default_directory': newTempDir });
    const driver = await new Builder().forBrowser('chrome').setChromeOptions(options).build();
    try
    {
        await driver.get('https://download-chromium.appspot.com/');
        await driver.findElement(By.id('download')).sendKeys(Key.RETURN);
        const startTime = process.hrtime();
        while(glob.sync(`${newTempDir}/chrome-*.zip`).length == 0) {
            const now = process.hrtime();
            const elapsedSeconds = now[0] - startTime[0]
            if(elapsedSeconds > 300) {
                throw "Download didn't complete.";
            }
            console.log(`Waiting for file to download (${elapsedSeconds} seconds elapsed)...`);
            await sleep(1000);
        }
        console.log('Successfully downloaded.');
    }
    catch(e)
    {
        console.error(e);
    }
    finally
    {
        await driver.quit();
    }
}

(async function run() {
    await download(false);
    await download(true);
})();

package.json

{
  "name": "DownloadBugRepro",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Repro of headless mode file download bug",
  "main": "index.js",
  "author": "Bart Joy",
  "license": "ISC",
  "devDependencies": {
    "chromedriver": "2.45.0",
    "selenium-webdriver": "3.6.0",
    "temp-dir": "1.0.0",
    "uuid": "3.3.2"
  }
}