Three Playwright/Apify bugs that took me way too long to find (and the fixes)

Description and use

Three hidden bugs in a Playwright + Camoufox + Apify Actor caused failures, hangs, and data loss. Fixes: pin Playwright 1.60.0, replace .click() with .fill() for text inputs, ensure default input returns results, and use a named key‑value store for persistence.

Problem

Three subtle bugs in a Playwright + Camoufox + Apify Actor caused failures, hangs, and data loss, wasting development time.

Outcome

Actor runs reliably, no hangs, data persists, and daily tests pass.

Workflow

• 1. Identify Playwright/Camoufox version incompatibility by checking launch errors.
• 2. Pin Playwright to 1.60.0 instead of the base image’s 1.61.0.
• 3. Replace Locator.click() on text inputs with Locator.fill(value) to avoid intermittent hangs.
• 4. Ensure default Actor input returns results consistently and fits within the 5‑minute SLA.
• 5. Use Actor.openKeyValueStore(name=…) to persist state across runs.
• 6. Test Actor daily to confirm success and non‑empty dataset.

Evidence

Pinning playwright==1.60.0 fixed it immediately.

Source

If your default input is a narrow query that occasionally has zero real-world matches, a perfectly correct run with zero results still counts as a failure.

Source