Failed to assume control of Microsoft Edge (Communication with browser failed. Try reloading extension).

[Jimbotron3000]

I've created a desktop flow that worked fine for a few weeks, but now it only works the first time after I reboot my computer. After that, it always hangs at "Launch new Microsoft Edge" with the error:

Failed to assume control of Microsoft Edge (Communication with browser failed. Try reloading extension).

Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Modules.SDK.ActionException: Failed to assume control of Microsoft Edge (Communication with browser failed. Try reloading extension). ---> Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.UIAutomation.WebAutomation.Core.Browser.WebBrowserException: Exception of type 'Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.UIAutomation.WebAutomation.Core.Browser.WebBrowserException' was thrown.
at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.UIAutomation.WebAutomation.Core.WebExtensionsBrowser.WebExtensionsBrowserLauncher.LaunchNew(ProcessWindowStyle processWindowStyle, String initialUrl, Int32 timeout, WebPageCourseOfActionIfDialogAppearsEnum dialogHandlingMode, String dialogButtonName)
at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.UIAutomation.Plugin.Edge.Edge.StartNew(ProcessWindowStyle processWindowStyle, String initialUrl, Int32 timeout, WebPageCourseOfActionIfDialogAppearsEnum dialogHandlingMode, String dialogButtonName)
at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Modules.WebAutomation.Actions.WebAutomationActions.LaunchNewEdge(Variant initialUrl, Variant edgeTabTitle, Variant edgeTabUrl, Variant dialogButtonToPress, Variant& webBrowserInstance, Int32 operation, Int32 windowState, Int32 attachMode, Boolean waitForWebPageToLoad, Int32 courseOfActionIfDialogAppears, Boolean clearCache, Boolean clearCookies, Int32 timeout)
at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Modules.WebAutomation.Actions.LaunchEdgeBase.Execute(ActionContext context)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Modules.WebAutomation.Actions.LaunchEdgeBase.Execute(ActionContext context)
at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Robin.Engine.Execution.ActionRunner.Run(IActionStatement statement, Dictionary`2 inputArguments, Dictionary`2 outputArguments)

If I reboot the computer, it will work again (once). Then it will stop working and always throw the error above. I've tried the following:

1. Uninstall and reinstall Power Automate Desktop
2. Uninstall and reinstall Power Automate Edge Extension
3. Clear cache and cookies in browser
4. Tried with Clear Cache option both ON and OFF
5. Tried with Clear Cookies option both ON and OFF
6. Tried with Wait for Page to Load option both ON and OFF
7. Tried On Error -> Continue flow run but then I just get an error in the next step "Argument 'BrowserInstance' must be 'Web browser instance'."

Any ideas on how I can fix this? I can't reboot my computer every time I want to run a flow.

[UK_Mike]

Well if you " simply " changed it to Firefox it cant be a very complex flow.

Recreate it using Edge.

Lastly, have you done a simple flow using Edge like I asked ? 🤔

[Jimbotron3000]

Hi @UK_Mike ,

I created the flow originally in Edge, so re-creating it in Edge won't really tell us anything new. I appreciate the help, but all signs are pointing to a bug with the Power Automate Edge addon not responding. I think Microsoft will need to fix this.

[UK_Mike]

Do you really think they are going to fix something that isn't broken ?

Works fine for me.

You have one in a million chance of getting a response from Microsoft and that response will be " Have you tried a simple flow using Edge to narrow down the problem ? "

Best of luck 🙂

[Anonymous]

I'm also faced same issue, i tried too many troubleshooting solutions to sort out but works as expected. Finally i added 15 sec wait after opening browser so that automation will wait for extension to load and ready to perform actions.

After that it is working fine no issues facing afterwards.

[UK_Mike]

Users too often think its PAD, don't forget when you interact with a website you are completely at the mercy of the site, is the site up to date, have they got quality servers, possibilities are endless for errors.

Im not saying there isnt any issues with PAD, im saying PAD has to interact with 3rd parties, issues happen.

[Jimbotron3000]

@UK_Mike yes, that's a good point and something to keep in mind whenever troubleshooting PAD issues related to websites. However, in this case since PAD works fine with this website on Firefox, but not Edge, and also since the error occurs before the website even loads (Edge doesn't give PAD control to even start the flow), the cause is unlikely to be related to the website. The flow fails on the first step, opening the browser and giving PAD control. The website actually never even loads.

[UK_Mike]

Are you aware all websites handle different browsers uniquely ?, if there's a web designer on here, chime in lol.

Is the website in question Top Secret ? 🤔

[Jimbotron3000]

@UK_Mike your condescending tone doesn't help the conversation at all. The error I am getting with Edge is at the very first step of the flow, before any website is loaded. The error states explicitly "Failed to assume control of Microsoft Edge (Communication with browser failed. Try reloading extension)." The flow hangs with the browser open to an empty tab. No page is loaded at all. So, although different browsers may handle the same website differently, that is irrelevant since the website doesn't even load to begin with.

It doesn't matter what website I put in the first step, I still get the error in Edge, and not in Firefox. This strongly indicates that the issue is with the Edge PA addon and has nothing to do with the website.

[UK_Mike]

If I came across as condescending I apologise, but I wasnt.

Im trying to explain it may not be Edge, maybe the site in question doesnt like Edge, this happens more often than you think.

I have zero issues with Edge...................................... at the moment 😂

Your absolutely convinced there's a bug wheras im trying to explain there are other issues that have not been investigated thoroughly.

[Pavel_NaNoi]

A few more questions might help narrow this down further, unless you've already solved this problem:

- Are you by any chance using Power Automate Flows to run this desktop flow?

- Is the Launch new Microsoft Edge action the first action in your flow or are there any before it? Do you also close it via a close browser action on the first run?

- Do you have any additional extensions installed on your edge browser?

- Is this attended automation?
- Are there multiple browsers (of any type) open during the start of this automation?

[Gman8321]

I get this same issue randonly when trying to launch a new Edge opening a SharePoint site and perfoming actions. In my use case we are opening a SharePoitn site in IE mode so I can't try with any other browser. The product is buggy. Our organization has foiund PAD to be too troublesome to deploy to the org. We would spend more time troubleshooting desktop flows that fail as compared to the amount of time the flows are suppose to save. 

[Ankesh_49]

@Jimbotron3000 Could you please try this: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Automate-Desktop/PAD-gt-Failed-to-assume-control-of-Micros...

[Jimbotron3000]

Hi @Ankesh_49 ,

So, unfortunately the workarounds in the article you posted didn't work for me, but I tweaked it a bit and got it to work.

The article says to Launch new Microsoft Edge using a known good URL like google.com, then add a Go to web page step to go the page you want. This didn't work for me. However, what I did was I opened Edge myself manually, then navigated manually to bing.com. Then, for my Launch new Microsoft Edge step I attached to existing tab named "Bing". This worked for me.

This is still a workaround. It adds several manual steps that I have to perform before I launch the flow. The flow works fine with Chrome & Firefox without the workaround, so Microsoft does still need to fix this.

[Ankesh_49]

@Jimbotron3000  Great news!! Awesome.

Cheers,

Ankesh

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[Mibsk]

Hi Jimbotron3000 🙂

I dont know if you have the same problem that i have been having, but ill give it a try anyways.
Are you using "Launch new Microsoft Edge" to hit a specific tab? 
Or are you using it to open Edge from scratch? 

Ive had the same problem as you when i try to hit a specific tab with "Launch new Microsoft Edge". 
The error accourse when Edge is just a bit slow to get the tab open. 
Even if i have retry on error on, it simply will not attache. 
I made a wait for window with the specific tab title that i want to store the Edge instance for. 
Then the problem has stopped for me. 

But if you are having the problem with brand new opening of Edge then i have no idea how to help, since i have not experienced any issues with that.

[Jimbotron3000]

Hi @Mibsk ,

Thank you for adding to the conversation. Basically what you suggest is the workaround I described above. Instead of opening a new Edge instance, I attach to an existing tab, and it works. The problem is that this adds some manual steps to the flow, so I can't just click "Start" and forget it. Until Microsoft fixes this, I'll have to continue using Firefox.

Cheers!

[siva_Rooney22]

I'm facing similar issue, the page opens in a browser and flow continue to run few seconds then throws "Failed to assume control of Chrome (Communication with browser failed. Try reloading extension)". The flow that ran 3 weeks back is not working now. I tried simple flow opening a youtube channel url with both edge and chrome yet same error. Any update on this thread?  

[Leafar30]

Dude the error mentioned above is in regards to not be able to launch the webbrowser.

[paddelia]

I added a Retry 2 times with 5 seconds interval step to the Launch Browser task. It seems to be better; it may add a few seconds to the flow but since my flows run at night it is not an issue.

[rkhan]

This had happened to me before, and as per the error message, i spent a lot of time debugging the extension. however, the actual issue was a change in selector/title when attaching browser. In my case, there was an additional profile in edge that started showing up which i had to wildcard.

Not sure if that's your issue but could be similar