HTMLInputElement: cancel event

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. Its been available across browsers since May 2023.

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The cancel event fires on an <input> element when the user cancels the file picker dialog via the Esc key or the cancel button and when the user re-selects the same files that were previously selected of type="file".

This event is not cancelable but can bubble.

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.

addEventListener("cancel", (event) => { })

oncancel = (event) => { }

Event type

A generic Event.

Examples

Canceling an input element

HTML

html

<label for="file">Select a file. Or don't.</label>
<input type="file" id="file" name="file" />

<div id="result"></div>

div {
  margin-bottom: 10px;
}

JavaScript

const elem = document.getElementById("file");

const result = document.getElementById("result");

elem.addEventListener("cancel", () => {
  result.textContent = "Canceled.";
});

elem.addEventListener("change", () => {
  if (elem.files.length === 1) {
    result.textContent = "File Selected.";
  }
});

Result

Open the file selector, then close the selection dialog with the escape key or the cancel button. Both of these will cause the cancel event to be fired. Also, try selecting a local file on your machine; then reopen the file selection window and reselect the same file. This too causes the cancel event to be fired.