Selenium Webdriver in Python - files download directory change in Chrome preferences

Question

I\'m using Selenium Webdriver (in Python) to automate the downloading of thousands of files. I want to set Chrome\'s download folder programmatically. After reading this, I

Answer 1

I try all the anwsers in this question, but it doesn't work for my in Ubuntu 16.10. So I add the change with os.environ for the variable XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR. Which doesn't work, but I think that it helps.

That is:

os.environ['XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR'] = default_download_directory

The really change that works perfectly for me is setup the download folder via the command xdg-user-dirs-update through a system call in execution time:

os.system("xdg-user-dirs-update --set DOWNLOAD " + default_download_directory)

So, all my code related to setup the download dir is the following:

import os
from selenium import webdriver

default_download_directory = str(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))) + "/download"

os.environ['XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR'] = default_download_directory

os.system("xdg-user-dirs-update --set DOWNLOAD " + default_download_directory)

desired_caps = {
    'prefs': {
            'download': {
                'default_directory': str(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))) + "/download", 
                "directory_upgrade": "true", 
                "extensions_to_open": ""
                }
              }
        }

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions() 
options.add_argument("download.default_directory=" + str(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))) + "/download")

browser = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=options, desired_capabilities=desired_caps)