Are you struggling to get started with Selenium WebDriver in Java? Well this post will help you to resolve the most annoying Selenium WebDriver with Java errors.

java.lang.IllegalStateException: The driver is not executable: …/chromedriver

Error Message

java.lang.IllegalStateException: The driver is not executable: /Users/nikolayadvolodkin/Documents/source/java/selenium-java/resources/mac/chromedrive

The Problem

The issue is that you need to download the correct Chromedriver version for your OS

The Solution

The solution is here, see my comment in SO as well.


“chromedriver” cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified.

Error Message

“chromedriver” cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified.

The Problem

Mac OS security stuff…

The Solution

The solution is on SO. Either answer 1 or 2 will fix this


[ERROR] Source option 1.5 is no longer supported. Use 1.6 or later.

Error Message

[ERROR] Source option 1.5 is no longer supported. Use 1.6 or later.
[ERROR] Target option 1.5 is no longer supported. Use 1.6 or later.

The Solution

Need to set your maven.compiler.source to at least 1.6

<properties> 
<maven.compiler.source>1.6</maven.compiler.source> 
<maven.compiler.target>1.6</maven.compiler.target> 
</properties>

Btw, if you’re struggling with Selenium and need my favorite resources, you might want to check these out.


Cannot start compilation: the output path is not specified for module “xyz” Specify the output path in Configure Project.

Error Message

Cannot start compilation: the output path is not specified for module "xyz" Specify the output path in Configure Project.

The Problem

The issue is that you need to set an output path in your Intelli J.

The Solution

You have 2 options here

I was able to resolve this problem by setting a path in the Project compiler output. I simply create an `out` folder in my parent directory and specified the path to point to this directory.