If you are reading this, you have likely encountered one of the most frustrating yet common exceptions in Selenium WebDriver automation:
Benefits:
c# - 'Cannot start the driver service on http://localhost:60681/'
: A system-level or corporate proxy environment variable forces local traffic through an outside proxy server, making localhost or 127.0.0.1 unreachable. If you are reading this, you have likely
The most frequent culprit is a mismatch between your browser and the driver.
If Firefox is installed in a non-standard directory, GeckoDriver won't be able to find it to start the service. You can explicitly tell Selenium where your browser executable lives using FirefoxOptions .
This error is rarely a "bug" in your code logic; it is almost always an . You can explicitly tell Selenium where your browser
— a brute-force but effective way to clear all stale processes.
refers to your own computer ( 127.0.0.1 ). GeckoDriver opens a TCP port (e.g., 4444 , 57263 ) to listen for commands. If anything prevents GeckoDriver from starting that listener, you see the error.
service = Service(executable_path='path/to/geckodriver') driver = webdriver.Firefox(service=service) refers to your own computer ( 127
Force-close all stuck automated processes using the Command Prompt (run as Administrator) or via a pre-test cleanup script:
(Python example):
using OpenQA.Selenium.Firefox;