Why Does Puppeteer Need Headless Mode Disabled for Web Scraping?

Headless Needs Disabled for Puppeteer due to Anti-scraping Measures

When using Puppeteer for web scraping, headless mode must sometimes be disabled because certain websites can detect and block headless browsers, preventing data retrieval.

Reasons for the Block:

Websites that employ aggressive anti-scraping measures may employ various techniques to identify headless browsers. This detection is based on specific browser behaviors and settings that are common to headless environments.

Workarounds:

1. puppeteer-extra Plugins:

   • Puppeteer-extra-plugin-anonymize-ua: Modifies the User Agent to obscure browser identity.
   • Puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth: Implements various evasive techniques to prevent headless detection.

2. Run Real Chromium Instance:

   • Launch a Chromium UI browser with command line arguments (--remote-debugging-port=9222).
   • Connect Puppeteer to the running instance using puppeteer.connect().

While headless mode provides efficiency, it may not be feasible for certain websites that employ active scraping countermeasures. By utilizing the suggested workarounds, developers can mitigate the detection and effectively perform their scraping tasks.

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