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Webscrapping data extraction element not found error even the extraction preview shows that the data has been correctly selected into coloumns

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Posted on by nedge

I am a trying to extract web data but it gives error" Element not found". I have tried using wait till the element is present, get to the bottom of the page, click on the element and then extract but it doesn't work. I have also tried using css selector and then manually typing the selectors in advanced option but it also doesn't work. However, the web extraction preview shows that the data has been selected into columns.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

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Power Automate Desktop

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Nived_Nambiar 18,138 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @nedge

You are saying you are using wait for element before scrapping, have you enabled timeout error for it if the element isn't found for that, just to confirm element is still not able to detect by wait for element ?

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nedge 8 on at

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Yes, i have enabled the timeout option and it gives error after stipulated time period.

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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If the Wait for web page content action times out and throws an error, it means that the content is not there. It's likely that it's not the extraction fails, but the part that waits for it. Have you tried recapturing the element that you're waiting for before the extraction?

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nedge 8 on at

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If I try to locate the very specific container that holds the elements that I want to extract, it works but the problem is it fails the purpose of automation as I have to redfine the container element for each site. Is there anyother HTML item or something that is common and I should find it first and then do the extraction. If this happens, it will solve the problem.

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nedge 8 on at

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If I try to locate the very specific container that holds the elements that I want to extract, it works but the problem is it fails the purpose of automation as I have to redfine the container element for each site. Is there anyother HTML item or something that is common and I should find it first and then do the extraction. If this happens, it will solve the problem.

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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Are you saying that you expect the same actions/elements to extract data from several different sites?

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nedge 8 on at

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Yes, as the elements I want to extract follow standard properties, I can create a few subflows that can loop through each of the standards and accordingly extract them. But the problem is that of elements not found. If I try to find the element first and then extract it, it would work. But now I will have to locate for the elements on each site that would make my robot somewhat ineffective and lengthy. I need some effective solution here

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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Every web page will need to be handled separately for sure. That's not related to the RPA tool in any way. It's related to the way web pages are built. Even if you expect similar data to be extracted, it is very likely provided in a completely different web page structure. It is perfectly normal for the same elements to not work throughout different web pages.

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