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tbwg's avatar
tbwg
New Contributor
2 days ago

Smartbear test extension 'Allow in Ingcognito' disables during test run

Hi there,

I run tests in a Chrome incognito browser, so the Smartbear Test Extension has to be installed and the 'Allow in Incognito' switch has to be turned on. Since January this year we encounter the issue of this switch being turned off during test execution.

I have already tried many things: cleaning the workspace, resetting all Chrome settings, deleting registry keys, reinstalling TestExecute, reinstalling the Smartbear Test Extension and Google Chrome, turning off automatic updates for Chrome.. nothing seems to help.

I have to turn the switch back on manually after a test fails because of the switch being turned off during test execution. The frequency of the switch getting turned off varies, sometimes it's 10 to 20 times a week, sometimes only 2 (in a project of about 40 pipelines running daily).

Has anybody else encountered this problem? I opened a ticket with Smartbear already in January but they do not seem willing to dive into this issue and solve it.

Thanks in advance.

4 Replies

  • Hassan_Ballan's avatar
    Hassan_Ballan
    Icon for Champion Level 3 rankChampion Level 3
    3 hours ago

    This is most likely Chrome itself disabling the extension. Incognito mode is more restrictive and less stable for long-running automation, and Chrome will disable extensions that appear unstable, crash, or trigger its abuse detection (for example, very repetitive or high-frequency actions).

    In practice, this tends to happen during extended runs because Incognito sessions are isolated and not designed for persistence. It’s worth checking chrome://extensions in developer mode and reviewing the extension’s background/service worker logs to see if there are errors or crashes just before it gets disabled.

    If this resolves your scenario, marking it as the solution helps future readers find it quickly.

  • scot1967's avatar
    scot1967
    Icon for Champion Level 3 rankChampion Level 3
    2 days ago

    Hello tbwg,

    We don't see this here.  Our test volume isn't as high as yours however.  I am sure this is frustrating. It would help to know more about your test environment.  We run our pipelines on dedicated VM's through Azure DevOps pipelines.  

     

    Good call on check here though, there are many people here and one of us may have see this!  

    If you don't get a solid answer, given the nature of the behavior it would be best to write up a very basic test and run it repeatedly to rule out everything your can.

    After that I would contact SmartBear:    

     

    ... If you find my posts helpful drop me a Like👍 Be sure to mark the post as the Solution✅ when you get one to help others out and to credit the one who helped you. 😎

    • tbwg's avatar
      tbwg
      New Contributor
      1 day ago

      Hi scot1967,

      Here is an explanation about our test environment.

      * 10x Linux application servers, configured in Jenkins as lockable resources.
      * 14x dedicated Windows servers with TestExecute, each configured as a Jenkins node.
      * In Jenkins, we manage approximately 40 pipelines, distributed across various branches and teams.

      Each test (build) uses:

      * One application server to execute the application.
      * The application client is a Java executable, but we also use Google Chrome in most tests.
      * Multiple TestExecute nodes to execute automated tests.
      * Each pipeline runs at least once every 24 hours, resulting in a minimum of 40 builds per day, each triggering a significant number of TestExecute test runs. A pipeline typically consists of multiple TestExecute stages, where tests can be executed in parallel within a stage.
      * Each TestExecute node executes a maximum of one test at a time to ensure stability and reliability.

      We already opened a ticket with Smartbear months ago but it hasn't lead to a solution yet.

       

      • rraghvani's avatar
        rraghvani
        Icon for Champion Level 3 rankChampion Level 3
        1 day ago

        It's most likely being disabled by your Group Policy or Chrome

        SmartBear Test Extension in Incognito