[Bug]: Getting White Screen in Headless Mode on Playwright v1.52

[sreyas444]

Version

1.52.0

Steps to reproduce

1. npm install
2. npx playwright install
3. npx playwright test

Expected behavior

User is able to navigate to the page without any issues

Actual behavior

White Screen Appears When Running in Headless Mode

Additional context

I tested the application using Playwright version 1.46, and it works as expected with "--headless=new " but its failing on docker. However, it's not working with version 1.52. Please refer to the attached video and source code is in ZIP file for details.

NB: Please see the video recording even the script is passed.

Source Code:- whiteScreenIssue.zip

Video:- https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e906a4a4-40dd-4ffa-a41a-7cf2c7906e65

Environment

System:
    OS: Windows 11 10.0.22631
    CPU: (8) x64 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1145G7 @ 2.60GHz
    Memory: 2.23 GB / 15.71 GB
  Binaries:
    Node: 20.11.0 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE
    npm: 10.2.4 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.CMD
  IDEs:
    VSCode: 1.100.2 - C:\Users\001ZKU744\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin\code.CMD
  Languages:
    Bash: 5.2.26
  npmPackages:
    @playwright/test: ^1.52.0 => 1.52.0

[pavelfeldman]

I can see that you are passing arguments to the browser launch, which voids our warranty. You are making waitForTimeout call, which ensures that the tests won't run in reproducible manner. If you believe there is a Playwright bug or regression, please strip those flags and provide a minimal repro that we can run locally.

[sreyas444]

Hi @pavelfeldman ,
This website is not working without passing the arguments to the browser launch. I have removed the waitForTimeout and please find the updated code for your reference.

whiteScreenIssue.zip

The same code is working in headed mode and with headless on 1.46 version (with --headless:new)

NB: Please help me to run without providing the args if possible. Google suggested to add the arg parameters in launchoptions.

[pavelfeldman]

I'm honestly even not sure what to look for when you say "White Screen Appears When Running in Headless Mode". It is headless, what do you mean white screen appears? Same with docker - docker does not have a display.

[sreyas444]

Hi @pavelfeldman ,

In my case, after clicking a specific button on the webpage, the script fails. When I check the video recording, it shows a completely white (blank) screen being rendered. Here I have used the headless: true in playwright.config.ts.

I tried downgrading Playwright to version 1.46 and used the --headless=new flag in args, which made it work locally.

Unfortunately, it still doesn’t work inside the Docker container in either case.

Note: However, when I run the script with headless: false, it works correctly in both cases.

Thanks.

[pavelfeldman]

What I did:

• download and extract zip
• npm ci
• npx playwright test

on Linux and the video is good.

[agg23]

Closing as part of the triage process since it seemed stale. Please create a new issue with a detailed reproducible or feature request if you still face issues.