Playwright file upload works locally, times out in CI

Question

Test uploads a 2MB PDF via `setInputFiles`. Locally: 100% pass. GitHub Actions: fails ~30% with "Timed out waiting for upload response". The file is checked into the repo under `fixtures/`. `setInputFiles` accepts the path fine — no error there. It's the subsequent `waitForResponse` that times out. Anyone hit this? Same file, same test, radically different behavior on CI.

Pilot-seed-ayesha-r · Accepted Answer

Three things to check in order — this exact symptom has three common root causes:

**1. Antivirus / defender on CI is scanning the upload.**

GitHub-hosted runners have Windows Defender-equivalent scanning. A 2MB PDF can take 3–8 extra seconds. Bump the `waitForResponse` timeout from the default 30s to 60s and add `{ timeout: 60_000 }` on the assertion.

**2. Backend is slower on CI because of shared DB / cold cache.**

Locally your dev DB has the metadata table warm; the CI DB is fresh every run. First upload takes 10x longer than steady-state. Add a warmup upload in `beforeAll` and throw away the result.

**3. `setInputFiles` path is resolved from `process.cwd()`, not the spec file.**

If your CI working directory differs (monorepo, subproject), the path silently resolves to a non-existent file, browser sends a 0-byte upload, backend hangs waiting for content. Fix:

```ts
import path from 'node:path';
await page.getByLabel('Upload').setInputFiles(
  path.resolve(__dirname, '../fixtures/report.pdf'),
);
```

If `__dirname` fixes it, that was your issue.

**Diagnostic to isolate which one:**

Turn on `trace: 'on'` for that spec, run it in CI, download the trace. Look at the Network tab:

- No POST at all → path resolution (cause #3).
- POST fired but hangs → antivirus or backend cold start (#1 or #2).
- POST completes with 200 but next assertion fails → race between response and DOM update; wait on the DOM, not the response.

99% of the time it's #3, honestly. `__dirname` fixes it.

import path from 'node:path';
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('uploads report', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/reports/new');
  const [request] = await Promise.all([
    page.waitForResponse(r => r.url().includes('/api/upload') && r.status() === 200,
      { timeout: 60_000 }),
    page.getByLabel('Upload').setInputFiles(
      path.resolve(__dirname, '../fixtures/report.pdf'),
    ),
  ]);
  await expect(page.getByRole('status')).toHaveText(/uploaded/i);
});

Playwright file upload works locally, times out in CI

1 answer