Adjust protractor config to debug in non-headless mode - selenium

Question

When executing the protractor test, it succeeds in --headless mode, but when I remove the --headless option, it fails stating: the user data directory is already in use, please specify a unique value for --user-data-dir argument, or don't use --user-data-dir.
As you can see, I'm not using that particular argument, so I'm not what to do about this.
Update: When the crome browser tab opens, data:, is in the address bar.
Error
$ protractor conf.js
[14:10:17] I/launcher - Running 1 instances of WebDriver
[14:10:17] I/direct - Using ChromeDriver directly...
[14:10:18] E/launcher - invalid argument: user data directory is already in use, please specify a unique value for --user-data-dir argument, or don't use --user-data-dir
(Driver info: chromedriver=79.0.3945.16 (93fcc21110c10dbbd49bbff8f472335360e31d05-refs/branch-heads/3945#{#262}),platform=Windows NT 10.0.17763 x86_64)
[14:10:18] E/launcher - WebDriverError: invalid argument: user data directory is already in use, please specify a unique value for --user-data-dir argument, or don't use --user-data-dir
(Driver info: chromedriver=79.0.3945.16 (93fcc21110c10dbbd49bbff8f472335360e31d05-refs/branch-heads/3945#{#262}),platform=Windows NT 10.0.17763 x86_64)
at Object.checkLegacyResponse (C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\error.js:546:15)
at parseHttpResponse (C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\http.js:509:13)
at C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\http.js:441:30
at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:93:5)
From: Task: WebDriver.createSession()
at Function.createSession (C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\webdriver.js:769:24)
at Function.createSession (C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\chrome.js:761:15)
at Direct.getNewDriver (C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\built\driverProviders\direct.js:77:33)
at Runner.createBrowser (C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\built\runner.js:195:43)
at C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\built\runner.js:339:29
at _fulfilled (C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\node_modules\q\q.js:834:54)
at C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\node_modules\q\q.js:863:30
at Promise.promise.promiseDispatch (C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\node_modules\q\q.js:796:13)
at C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\node_modules\q\q.js:556:49
at runSingle (C:\Install\node-v12.13.1-win-x64\node_modules\protractor\node_modules\q\q.js:137:13)
[14:10:18] E/launcher - Process exited with error code 199
Config
exports.config = {
chromeOnly: true,
directConnect: true,
capabilities: {
browserName: 'chrome',
chromeOptions: {
args: ['--no-sandbox', "--headless", "--disable-gpu", "--window-size=800,600"]
},
},
specs: ['login.jenkins.js']
};

Answer 1

The reason for this error is that there are multiple chrome browser instances running on different profiles. When protractor starts your tests, chrome creates a default profile and runs your tests on that profile. If there are multiple chrome instances running, chrome will ask for your user defined profile in the --user-data-dir argument.
This means that you should make sure that there are no pending processes of chrome running before you start your tests. Check for running processes and remove those processes. Then make sure you add an onComplete section like below in your configuration file so that your chrome browser instance is closed after your tests are done. Here is the code snippet.
onComplete: async () => {
await browser.driver.close();
await browser.driver.quit();
}
Try it out once! Might solve the problem you are facing.