How to clear localStorage using selenium and webdriver

Question

I want to call localStorage.clear() before running a group of specific tests but the thing is I don't know how. I can see CLEAR_LOCAL_STORAGE variable mentioned here but still failing to understand where exactly this constant is used and how I can perform desired action.

If calling js execution is the only option I'm OK with it but the existence of this constant makes me looking for a better solution.

Answer 1

If your driver implements WebStorage you can invoke

driver.getSessionStorage().clear();
driver.getLocalStorage().clear();

In order to make sure that the driver does implement WebStorage the idiom is

if (driver instanceof WebStorage) {
    WebStorage webStorage = (WebStorage)driver;
    webStorage.getSessionStorage().clear();
    webStorage.getLocalStorage().clear();
}

or better

if (!(driver instanceof WebStorage)) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("This test expects the driver to implement WebStorage");
}
WebStorage webStorage = (WebStorage)driver;
webStorage.getSessionStorage().clear();
webStorage.getLocalStorage().clear();

Answer 2

The answer Peter Masiar gave no longer works. This answer will result in the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/remote/webdriver.py", line 245, in get self.execute(Command.GET, {'url': url}) File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/remote/webdriver.py", line 233, in execute self.error_handler.check_response(response) File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/remote/errorhandler.py", line 194, in check_response raise exception_class(message, screen, stacktrace) selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: unknown error: unsupported protocol (Session info: chrome=51.0.2704.103) (Driver info: chromedriver=2.21.371459 (36d3d07f660ff2bc1bf28a75d1cdabed0983e7c4),platform=Mac OS X 10.11.3 x86_64)

In order to clear the localStorage the execute_script() method from WebDriver should be used.

WebDriver.execute_script('window.localStorage.clear();')

Answer 3

After you driver.get(URL) to your page, you can execute javascript in it from webdriver, like this

driver.get('javascript:<your JS snippet here>')

so try

driver.get('javascript:localStorage.clear();')

Answer 4

In C#, the current way to do this is:

if (driver.HasWebStorage) {
   driver.WebStorage.LocalStorage.Clear();
}
else {
   // you're out of luck...
}

Update (Selenium 4)

In Selenium 4, HasWebStorage and WebStorage are marked as obsolete:

[CS0618] 'WebDriver.HasWebStorage' is obsolete: 'Use JavaScript instead
for managing localStorage and sessionStorage. This property will be removed 
in a future release.'

It looks like the intended way is now:

if ((bool?)driver.ExecuteScript("return !!window.localStorage") == true) {
    driver.ExecuteScript("window.localStorage.clear();");
}