Button press TAB not working in selenium python

Question

I am trying to make a script, which would share a particular post along some groups in Facebook.
Everything is working smoothly, until choosing the group to repost the post in.

I have decided to use search bar and pressing TAB + ENTER after the search to proceed with the first available option after the search

Testing this manually works, I search for the group, then press tab + enter and the first group is chosen, only publishment is required after.

But trying to do so with Selenium doesn't work.
I can see how the scipt presses TAB, but shortly after, the search bar is being active again, so pressing ENTER doesn't do anything.

try:
            group_input = driver.find_element(
                By.XPATH, '//input[contains(@placeholder, "груп") or contains(@placeholder, "group")]'
            )
            group_input.clear()
            group_input.send_keys(group_name)

            WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located(
                (By.XPATH, '//input[contains(@placeholder, "груп") or contains(@placeholder, "group")]')
            ))
            time.sleep(2)

            group_input.send_keys(Keys.TAB)
            time.sleep(1)
            group_input.send_keys(Keys.ENTER)
            time.sleep(2)

I cannot really understand what is the issue here, how can I do so the group after searching is selected?

I tried switching by simulating the mouse click, tried to do so with execution with js script, but seems like selenium is struggling with not static elements.
I am expecting the script not making the search bar active again after pressing tab.

mxasd · Accepted Answer · 2025-08-21 07:12:46Z

I have found what the issue is.
It was not a "Tab" that was not pressing, but "Enter" which was being pressed in "group.input", so it was not targeted on the page, but on the search bar itself.

I have fixed it this way and now it works for me:

actions = ActionChains(driver)

try:
            group_input = driver.find_element(
                By.XPATH, '//input[contains(@placeholder, "груп") or contains(@placeholder, "group")]'
            )
            group_input.clear()
            group_input.send_keys(group_name)

            WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(EC.presence_of_element_located(
                (By.XPATH, '//input[contains(@placeholder, "груп") or contains(@placeholder, "group")]')
            ))
            time.sleep(2)

            group_input.send_keys(Keys.TAB)
            time.sleep(1)
            actions.send_keys(Keys.ENTER)
            actions.perform()
            time.sleep(2)

Ajeet Verma · Accepted Answer · 2025-08-21 08:15:16Z

1

Here's a more robust version of what you're trying to achieve without using the unreliable fixed delay(time.sleep()):

# Locate and wait for the search input for groups 
group_input = wait.until(EC.presence_of_element_located(
    (By.XPATH, '//input[contains(@placeholder, "груп") or contains(@placeholder, "group")]')
))
# Clear any pre-filled text and submit the query
group_input.clear()
group_input.send_keys("Group Name") # for example "Computer Vision"
group_input.send_keys(Keys.ENTER)

# Wait until the first search result container is visible.
wait.until(EC.visibility_of_element_located(
    (By.CSS_SELECTOR, 'div[aria-label="Search results"]>div>div>div>div>div>div:nth-child(1)')
))
# the first group in the search results
first_group = wait.until(EC.visibility_of_element_located(
        (By.CSS_SELECTOR, 'a[aria-label^="Profile photo of"]')
    ))
# clcik to open the group 
first_group.click()
# next, you can proceed to post...

full code: GitHub

edited Aug 21 at 8:15

answered Aug 21 at 7:44

Ajeet Verma

4,5236 gold badges20 silver badges31 bronze badges

1 Comment

mxasd Aug 21 at 8:45

Thank you, that is very useful actually, the code would work even with slow internet speed However, I think I would still need to add some time.sleep with random amount of seconds after each step so the account will not be banned

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