diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index b5fa9edb1..53706087f 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -44,12 +44,12 @@ dev =
     bumpver>=2023.1129
     pgtest~=1.3
     pre-commit>=3.5
-    pytest~=8.2.0
+    pytest~=8.3.0
     pytest-cov~=5.0
-    pytest-docker~=3.0
-    pytest-selenium~=4.1
-    pytest-timeout~=2.2
-    selenium==4.20.0
+    pytest-docker~=3.1.0
+    pytest-selenium~=4.1.0
+    pytest-timeout~=2.3.0
+    selenium~=4.23.0
 optimade =
     ipyoptimade~=0.1
 eln =
diff --git a/tests_notebooks/conftest.py b/tests_notebooks/conftest.py
index 4a43da646..41dfe9d08 100644
--- a/tests_notebooks/conftest.py
+++ b/tests_notebooks/conftest.py
@@ -99,16 +99,20 @@ def _selenium_driver(nb_path):
             url, f"apps/apps/aiidalab-widgets-base/{nb_path}?token={token}"
         )
         selenium.get(f"{url_with_token}")
-        # By default, let's allow selenium functions to retry for 10s
+        # By default, let's allow selenium functions to retry for 60s
         # till a given element is loaded, see:
         # https://selenium-python.readthedocs.io/waits.html#implicit-waits
-        selenium.implicitly_wait(30)
+        selenium.implicitly_wait(60)
         window_width = 800
         window_height = 600
         selenium.set_window_size(window_width, window_height)
 
         selenium.find_element(By.ID, "ipython-main-app")
         selenium.find_element(By.ID, "notebook-container")
+        selenium.find_element(By.ID, "appmode-busy")
+        # We wait until the appmode spinner disappears. However,
+        # this does not seem to be fully robust, as the spinner might flash
+        # while the page is still loading. So we add explicit sleep here as well.
         WebDriverWait(selenium, 240).until(
             ec.invisibility_of_element((By.ID, "appmode-busy"))
         )