Capybara have_field not finding field found by have_selector

The problem is that the textarea has the disabled="disabled" attribute, meaning it is a disabled field. By default, Capybara ignores disabled fields. New in Capybara 2.1 is the option to look for disabled fields.

Adding the disabled: true option will solve your problem:

expect(page).to have_field(id, type: 'textarea', disabled: true)

Note:

• That when you include disabled: true, the field must be disabled. The default is disabled: false, which only matches fields that are not disabled.
• That the :type value should be a string. As seen in the above, it is type: 'textarea'). Using a symbol, type: :textarea will not work.