org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: Timed out waiting for driver server to start. Build info: version: 'unknown', revision: 'unknown'

This error message...

2018-08-31 09:16:26,570 ERROR [io.undertow.request] (default task-1) UT005023: Exception handling request to /crawlerClass/myCrawler/5922: org.springframework.web.util.NestedServletException: Request processing failed; nested exception is org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: Timed out waiting for driver server to start.

...implies that the ChromeDriver was unable to initiate/spawn a new WebBrowser i.e. Chrome Browser session.

Your base exception is the org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException as your program Timed out waiting for driver server to start because of the following reason:

• Your JDK version is 1.8.0_92 which is pretty ancient.

So there is a clear mismatch between the JDK v8u92 and current Selenium Client v3.14.0.

Solution

• Upgrade JDK to recent levels JDK 8u181.
• Upgrade Selenium to current levels Version 3.14.0.
• Upgrade ChromeDriver to current ChromeDriver v2.41 level.
• Keep Chrome version between Chrome v66-68 levels. (as per ChromeDriver v2.41 release notes)
• Take a System Reboot.
• Execute your @Test.

There is one more aspect of the version mismatch between JDK and Selenium: sometimes the JDK minor version might be too high (e.g., JDK 8u201 and Selenium 3.141.59 doesn't seem to be compatible, but 8u192 works). You may need to downgrade the JDK minor version to the one that was released before the release date of the version of Selenium you are using.

This error got resolved for me when I copied 'chromedriver.exe' file path instead of chrome.exe. I hope someone gets helped with it

Correct:

System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "C:\\Users\\<username>\\Downloads\\chromedriver_win32\\chromedriver.exe");

Wrong:

System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default");