Handling errors

Learn about the different types of errors and how to handle them.

While running the Cypress tests on BrowserStack, you may face majorly three types of errors:

1. Errors while submitting tests to BrowserStack
2. Errors while initiating the build runs on BrowserStack
3. Errors while running Cypress tests on our browsers

Build submission errors

• JSON errors: the CLI throws JSON parsing errors when there are errors in the JSON
• Validation errors: the CLI throws validation errors when wrong values are passed in the CLI args or in the JSON for certain configuration options
• Authentication errors: using incorrect username and access key will cause authentication errors and the builds will not be run
• Build acceptance errors: builds might be rejected when your builds can’t be run, either because you don’t have access to run tests on Automate, you’re out of free-trial credits or you’re out of parallels while running the tests

Build run errors

• Cypress configuration errors: make sure you give the correct path in the cypress_config_file option, else we won’t be able to zip the spec files and run them on our infra
• Application server errors: if your application server is not reachable by the tests, the builds fail immediately. Ensure that your application is available before you trigger your tests.
  • If you are using Local testing, make sure you pass the ”local”: true option
• Missing plugin files: one or more support or plugin files is missing or invalid
• Missing NPM packages: there might be several NPM packages that your tests might need, but aren’t installed before running the tests. Use npm_dependencies option to make sure you list out all the required NPM packages

Test run errors

If there are any errors while your tests are running, you’d see those exact errors in the Automate dashboard, and you can update or retry your tests as required.

If you’re getting errors related to exec and task commands, consider running shell scripts on your machine to setup your tests where it is an option. You can reach out to our Support team in case you need any help.