[BUG] WaitFor timeout doesn't work, if it bigger than default global timeout

Context:

• Playwright Version: 1.25.2
• Operating System: Linux
• Node.js version: v16.14.0
• Browser: Chromium, WebKit
• Extra: Headless and headed mode

Code Snippet

import {test} from '@playwright/test';

test(`test waiting top limit`, async ({page}) => {
    await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/docs/actionability');
    await page.locator('.search123').waitFor({state: "visible", timeout: 60000})
});

Describe the bug

playwright.config.ts doesn’t have any timeout options, so default 30 seconds are taken. When I’m setting up a bigger timeout than the default for a single action, the test above waits for 30 seconds instead of the expected 60.

Running 1 test using 1 worker
  1) [webkit] › tests/testwaitings.spec.ts:3:1 › test waiting top limit ============================

    Test timeout of 30000ms exceeded.

    locator.waitFor: Target closed
    =========================== logs ===========================
    waiting for selector ".search123" to be visible
    ============================================================

      3 | test(`test waiting top limit`, async ({page}) => {
      4 |     await page.goto('https://playwright.dev/docs/actionability');
    > 5 |     await page.locator('.search123').waitFor({state: "visible", timeout: 60000})
        |                                      ^
      6 | });
      7 |

        at file:///Projects/playwright-tests/tests/testwaitings.spec.ts:5:38

    Pending operations:
      - locator.waitFor at tests/testwaitings.spec.ts:5:38

Additional info:

Debug mode doesn’t have above issue. When running the test with PWDEBUG=1, it waits for 60 seconds.

[mila-qa]

If a function has an option to set maximum timeout it’s logical to be able to use it.

  /**
   * Returns when element specified by locator satisfies the `state` option.
   *
   * If target element already satisfies the condition, the method returns immediately. Otherwise, waits for up to `timeout`
   * milliseconds until the condition is met.
   *
   * ```js
   * const orderSent = page.locator('#order-sent');
   * await orderSent.waitFor();
   * ```
   *
   * @param options
   */
  waitFor(options?: {
    /**
     * Defaults to `'visible'`. Can be either:
     * - `'attached'` - wait for element to be present in DOM.
     * - `'detached'` - wait for element to not be present in DOM.
     * - `'visible'` - wait for element to have non-empty bounding box and no `visibility:hidden`. Note that element without
     *   any content or with `display:none` has an empty bounding box and is not considered visible.
     * - `'hidden'` - wait for element to be either detached from DOM, or have an empty bounding box or `visibility:hidden`.
     *   This is opposite to the `'visible'` option.
     */
    state?: "attached"|"detached"|"visible"|"hidden";

    /**
     * Maximum time in milliseconds, defaults to 30 seconds, pass `0` to disable timeout. The default value can be changed by
     * using the
     * [browserContext.setDefaultTimeout(timeout)](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-browsercontext#browser-context-set-default-timeout)
     * or [page.setDefaultTimeout(timeout)](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-page#page-set-default-timeout) methods.
     */
    timeout?: number;
  }): Promise<void>;}

Unfortunately, it’s not possible with the current implementation. Decreasing the waiting time doesn’t have logical sense, because If target element already satisfies the condition, the method returns immediately.

Anyway, thanks for the suggested workarounds.

[mxschmitt]

I’m looking for a solution for one action in a test.

This is an unsolvable problem, because the scopes are different, one per whole test execution and one for a single statement.

Unfortunately this is not a valid feature request, since this is working as expected and changes to the behaviour would not make logical sense.

So to recap, either increase test timeout for all the tests, use test.slow()/setTimeout for a single test or decrease the waiting time of waitFor.