Chromedriver naming mismatch on Mac ARM64: downloads chromedriver-mac-arm64_v* but expects chromedriver_mac64_v*

[outi5]

Describe the bug

appium-device-farm downloads chromedrivers from the Chrome for Testing API with the naming format chromedriver-mac-arm64_vXXX.X.XXXX.XXX (hyphen + "mac-arm64"), but when running tests, it attempts to use chromedriver_mac64_vXXX.X.XXXX.XXXcan you (underscore + "mac64"), causing "chromedriver binary...doesn't exist!" errors.

This affects all Chrome versions 115+ on Mac ARM64/Silicon processors.

Link to Appium logs

Sanitized Appium Logs

Environment

1. Appium version (or git revision) that exhibits the issue: appium 3.2.0
2. Last Appium version that did not exhibit the issue (if applicable):
3. Node.js version (unless using Appium.app|exe): node 24.13.1
4. Npm or Yarn package manager: npm 11.8.0
5. Mobile platform/version under test: Android 16
6. Real device or emulator/simulator: Real Android device
7. Appium CLI or Appium.app|exe: Appium CLI
8. Device Farm version: 11.3.2
9. OS: macOS (Apple Silicon/ARM64)
10. Chrome version: 143.0.7499.194

Steps to Reproduce

1. Configure appium-device-farm with skipChromeDownload: false
2. Start Appium server (first start downloads v87-114 with old naming)
3. Restart Appium server (second start downloads v115+ with new naming from Chrome for Testing API)
4. Run a test that switches context to WEBVIEW (e.g., Terms & Conditions page)
5. Observe error when device-farm attempts to launch chromedriver

Expected Behavior

device-farm should successfully find and launch the chromedriver matching the Chrome version on the device.

Actual Behavior

Test fails with error:

Response 500 POST http://0.0.0.0:4723/wd/hub/session/xxxxx/context (173ms)
 {
   value: {
     error: 'unknown error',
     message: "Trying to use a chromedriver binary at the path /Users/username/.appium/node_modules/appium-device-farm/chromedriver/chromedriver_mac64_v143.0.7499.192, but it doesn't exist!",
     stacktrace: ''
   }
 }

Actual file downloaded:
chromedriver-mac-arm64_v143.0.7499.192

File device-farm is looking for:
chromedriver_mac64_v143.0.7499.192

Root Cause

The Chrome for Testing API (used for Chrome v115+) provides chromedrivers with the naming convention chromedriver-mac-arm64 for ARM64 Macs. However, device-farm's device registration code constructs paths using the old naming
convention chromedriver_mac64.

This is a two-part issue:

1. Different naming format: hyphen vs underscore (chromedriver-mac-arm64 vs chromedriver_mac64)
2. Different platform identifier: "mac-arm64" vs "mac64"

Workaround

Create copies of the downloaded chromedrivers with the expected naming:

cd ~/.appium/node_modules/appium-device-farm/chromedriver/
for file in chromedriver-mac-arm64_v*; do
    new_file=$(echo "$file" | sed 's/chromedriver-mac-arm64_v/chromedriver_mac64_v/')
    cp "$file" "$new_file"
done

Related Issues

• appium/appium-chromedriver#398 - Same underlying issue in the appium-chromedriver library that device-farm depends on. This issue has been open since May 2024 with no resolution.