Any automation can and will stop working when the HTML on a page changes and CSS selectors therefore stop working. For some sites this happens frequently, and for some sites it rarely, if ever, happens.
Facebook is an example of a site that deliberately tries to change page elements to make consistent, reliable automation more difficult to achieve. FB does this via obfuscating its HTML and regularly changing how elements can be identified.
The takeaway: don’t be surprised if working automations stop working, even Sheets Genie Project Templates
I’ve created Sheets Genie Project Templates to make it easier for you to jumpstart your automations, but just because they work perfectly one day, doesn’t mean they’ll work perfectly the next day.
So here’s what you do to put yourself in the power position:
- Learn the basics of DIY Web Scraping & Automations with Sheets Genie
- Specifically: know how to use WebScraper.io + Sheets Genie
- As a result, you can now fix automations if / when they stop working due to CSS selector changes
How to fix automations when CSS selectors change
The tutorial on DIY Web Scraping & Automations + the video below will help you fix broken automations due to CSS selectors changes.
If you’re serious about automating things, this is a super valuable skill to develop. Just a little knowledge goes a long way.