Detect browser or tab closing

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Is there any cross-browser JavaScript/jQuery code to detect if the browser or a browser tab is being closed, but not due to a link being clicked?

24 Answers

For similar tasks, you can use sessionStorage to store data locally until the browser tab is closed.

The sessionStorage object stores data for only one session (the data is deleted when the browser tab is closed).(W3Schools)

This is my pen.

<div id="Notice">
    <span title="remove this until browser tab is closed"><u>dismiss</u>.</span>
</div>
<script>
    $("#Notice").click(function() {
     //set sessionStorage on click
        sessionStorage.setItem("dismissNotice", "Hello");
        $("#Notice").remove();
    });
    if (sessionStorage.getItem("dismissNotice"))
    //When sessionStorage is set Do stuff...
        $("#Notice").remove();
</script>

I found a way, that works on all of my browsers.

Tested on following versions: Firefox 57, Internet Explorer 11, Edge 41, one of the latested Chrome (it won't show my version)

Note: onbeforeunload fires if you leave the page in any way possible (refresh, close browser, redirect, link, submit..). If you only want it to happen on browser close, simply bind the event handlers.

  $(document).ready(function(){         

        var validNavigation = false;

        // Attach the event keypress to exclude the F5 refresh (includes normal refresh)
        $(document).bind('keypress', function(e) {
            if (e.keyCode == 116){
                validNavigation = true;
            }
        });

        // Attach the event click for all links in the page
        $("a").bind("click", function() {
            validNavigation = true;
        });

        // Attach the event submit for all forms in the page
        $("form").bind("submit", function() {
          validNavigation = true;
        });

        // Attach the event click for all inputs in the page
        $("input[type=submit]").bind("click", function() {
          validNavigation = true;
        }); 

        window.onbeforeunload = function() {                
            if (!validNavigation) {     
                // ------->  code comes here
            }
        };

  });

Since no one has mentioned it yet (8+ years later): A WebSocket can be another effective way to detect a closed tab. As long as the tab is open and pointed at the host, the client is able to maintain an active WebSocket connection to the host.

Caveat: Please note that this solution is really only viable for a project if a WebSocket doesn't require any additional significant overhead from what you are already doing.

Within a sensible timeout period (e.g. 2 minutes), the server side can determine that the client has gone away after the WebSocket has disconnected and perform whatever action is desired such as removing uploaded temp files. (In my extremely specialized use-case, my goal was to terminate a localhost app server three seconds after the WebSocket connection drops and all CGI/FastCGI activity terminates - any other keep-alive connections don't affect me.)

I had problems getting the onunload event handler to work properly with beacons (as recommended by this answer). Closing the tab did not appear to trigger the beacon and open tabs triggered it in ways that could potentially cause problems. A WebSocket solved the problem I was running into more cleanly because the connection closes roughly around the same time that the tab closes and switching pages within the application simply opens a new WebSocket connection well within the delay window.

onunload is the answer for Chrome. According to caniuse its crossbrowser. But not all browsers react the same.

window.onunload = function(){
    alert("The window is closing now!");
}

developer.mozilla.org

These events fire when the window is unloading its content and resources.

For Chrome:

onunload executes only on page close. It doesn't execute even on page refresh and on navigating to a different page.

For Firefox v86.0:

It wouldn't execute at all. Page refresh, navigating away, closing browser tab, closing browser, nothing.

//Detect Browser or Tab Close Events
$(window).on('beforeunload',function(e) {
  e = e || window.event;
  var localStorageTime = localStorage.getItem('storagetime')
  if(localStorageTime!=null && localStorageTime!=undefined){
    var currentTime = new Date().getTime(),
        timeDifference = currentTime - localStorageTime;

    if(timeDifference<25){//Browser Closed
       localStorage.removeItem('storagetime');
    }else{//Browser Tab Closed
       localStorage.setItem('storagetime',new Date().getTime());
    }

  }else{
    localStorage.setItem('storagetime',new Date().getTime());
  }
});

JSFiddle Link

Hi all, I was able to achieve 'Detect Browser and Tab Close Event' clicks by using browser local storage and timestamp. Hope all of you will get solved your problems by using this solution.

After my initial research i found that when we close a browser, the browser will close all the tabs one by one to completely close the browser. Hence, i observed that there will be very little time delay between closing the tabs. So I taken this time delay as my main validation point and able to achieve the browser and tab close event detection.

I tested it on Chrome Browser Version 76.0.3809.132 and found working

:) Vote Up if you found my answer helpful....

I have tried all above solutions, none of them really worked for me, specially because there are some Telerik components in my project which have 'Close' button for popup windows, and it calls 'beforeunload' event. Also, button selector does not work properly when you have Telerik grid in your page (I mean buttons inside the grid) So, I couldn't use any of above suggestions. Finally this is the solution worked for me. I have added an onUnload event on the body tag of _Layout.cshtml. Something like this:

<body onUnload="LogOff()">

and then add the LogOff function to redirect to Account/LogOff which is a built-in method in Asp.Net MVC. Now, when I close the browser or tab, it redirect to LogOff method and user have to login when returns. I have tested it in both Chrome & Firefox. And it works!

  function LogOff() {
        $.ajax({
            url: "/Account/LogOff",
            success: function (result) {

                                        }
               });
       }

It can be used to alert the user if some data is unsaved or something like that. This method works when the tab is closed or when the browser is closed, or webpage refresh.

It won't work unless the user has not interacted with the webpage, this is a mechanism to fight malicious websites..... there will be no popup unless you atleast make a click or touch on the website window.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
    <form>
        <textarea placeholder = "Write...."></textarea>
    </form>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        window.addEventListener('beforeunload', function (e) {
            e.returnValue = '';
        });
    </script>
</body>
</html>

It is possible to check it with the help of window.closed in an event handler on 'unload' event like this, but timeout usage is required (so result cannot be guaranteed if smth delay or prevent window from closure):

Example of JSFiddle (Tested on lates Safari, FF, Chrome, Edge and IE11 )

var win = window.open('', '', 'width=200,height=50,left=200,top=50');
win.document.write(`<html>
   <head><title>CHILD WINDOW/TAB</title></head>
   <body><h2>CHILD WINDOW/TAB</h2></body>
</html>`);
win.addEventListener('load',() => {
    document.querySelector('.status').innerHTML += '<p>Child was loaded!</p>';
});
win.addEventListener('unload',() => {
    document.querySelector('.status').innerHTML += '<p>Child was unloaded!</p>';
    setTimeout(()=>{
        document.querySelector('.status').innerHTML +=  getChildWindowStatus();
    },1000);
});
win.document.close()
document.querySelector('.check-child-window').onclick = ()=> {
    alert(getChildWindowStatus());
}
function getChildWindowStatus() {
  if (win.closed) { 
      return 'Child window has been closed!';
  } else {
      return 'Child window has not been closed!';
  }
}

There have been updates to the browser to better tack the user when leaving the app. The event 'visibilitychange' lets you tack when a page is being hidden from another tab or being closed. You can track the document visibility state. The property document.visibilityState will return the current state. You will need to track the sign in and out but its closer to the goal.

This is supported by more newer browser but safari (as we know) never conforms to standards. You can use 'pageshow' and 'pagehide' to work in safari.

You can even use new API's like sendBeacon to send a one way request to the server when the tab is being closed and shouldn't expect a response.

I build a quick port of a class I use to track this. I had to remove some calls in the framework so it might be buggy however this should get you started.

export class UserLoginStatus
{
    /**
     * This will add the events and sign the user in.
     */
    constructor()
    {
        this.addEvents();
        this.signIn();
    }

    /**
     * This will check if the browser is safari. 
     * 
     * @returns {bool}
     */
    isSafari()
    {
        if(navigator && /Safari/.test(navigator.userAgent) && /Chrome/.test(navigator.userAgent))
        {
            return (/Google Inc/.test(navigator.vendor) === false);
        }
        return false;
    }

    /**
     * This will setup the events array by browser.
     * 
     * @returns {array}
     */
    setupEvents()
    {
        let events = [
            ['visibilitychange', document, () =>
            {
                if (document.visibilityState === 'visible')
                {
                    this.signIn();
                    return;
                }

                this.signOut();
            }]
        ];

        // we need to setup events for safari
        if(this.isSafari())
        {
            events.push(['pageshow', window, (e) =>
            {
                if(e.persisted === false)
                {
                    this.signIn();
                }
            }]);

            events.push(['pagehide', window, (e) =>
            {
                if(e.persisted === false)
                {
                    this.signOut();
                }
            }]);
        }

        return events;
    }

    /**
     * This will add the events.
     */
    addEvents()
    {
        let events = this.setupEvents();
        if(!events || events.length < 1)
        {
            return;
        }

        for(var i = 0, length = events.length; i < length; i++)
        {
            var event = events[i];
            if(!event)
            {
                continue;
            }

            event[1].addEventListener(event[0], event[3]);
        }
    }

    /**
     * 
     * @param {string} url 
     * @param {string} params 
     */
    async fetch(url, params)
    {
        await fetch(url, 
        {
            method: 'POST',
            body: JSON.stringify(params)
        });
    }

    /**
     * This will sign in the user.
     */
    signIn()
    {
        // user is the app
        const url = '/auth/login';
        let params = 'userId=' + data.userId;

        this.fetch(url, params);
    }

    /**
     * This will sign out the user.
     */
    signOut()
    {
        // user is leaving the app

        const url = '/auth/logout';
        let params = 'userId=' + data.userId;

        if(!('sendBeacon' in window.navigator))
        {
            // normal ajax request here
            this.fetch(url, params);
            return;
        }

        // use a beacon for a more modern request the does not return a response
        navigator.sendBeacon(url, new URLSearchParams(params));
    }
}

My approach would be along these lines:

  1. Listen for changes in the url with onpopstate and set a sessionStorage variable with 1
  2. Listen for page load and set that sessionStorage variable to 0
  3. On beforeunload, check if the variable is 0. If so it means that the user is closing and not changing url.

This is still a roundabout way to go, but makes sense to me

As @jAndy mentioned, there is no properly javascript code to detect a window being closed. I started from what @Syno had proposed.

I had pass though a situation like that and provided you follow these steps, you'll be able to detect it.
I tested it on Chrome 67+ and Firefox 61+.

var wrapper = function () { //ignore this

var closing_window = false;
$(window).on('focus', function () {
    closing_window = false; 
   //if the user interacts with the window, then the window is not being 
   //closed
});

$(window).on('blur', function () {

    closing_window = true;
    if (!document.hidden) { //when the window is being minimized
        closing_window = false;
    }
    $(window).on('resize', function (e) { //when the window is being maximized
        closing_window = false;
    });
    $(window).off('resize'); //avoid multiple listening
});

$('html').on('mouseleave', function () {
    closing_window = true; 
    //if the user is leaving html, we have more reasons to believe that he's 
    //leaving or thinking about closing the window
});

$('html').on('mouseenter', function () {
    closing_window = false; 
    //if the user's mouse its on the page, it means you don't need to logout 
    //them, didn't it?
});

$(document).on('keydown', function (e) {

    if (e.keyCode == 91 || e.keyCode == 18) {
        closing_window = false; //shortcuts for ALT+TAB and Window key
    }

    if (e.keyCode == 116 || (e.ctrlKey && e.keyCode == 82)) {
        closing_window = false; //shortcuts for F5 and CTRL+F5 and CTRL+R
    }
});

// Prevent logout when clicking in a hiperlink
$(document).on("click", "a", function () {
    closing_window = false;
});

// Prevent logout when clicking in a button (if these buttons rediret to some page)
$(document).on("click", "button", function () {
    closing_window = false;

});
// Prevent logout when submiting
$(document).on("submit", "form", function () {
    closing_window = false;
});
// Prevent logout when submiting
$(document).on("click", "input[type=submit]", function () {
    closing_window = false;
});

var toDoWhenClosing = function() {

    //write a code here likes a user logout, example: 
    //$.ajax({
    //    url: '/MyController/MyLogOutAction',
    //    async: false,
    //    data: {

    //    },
    //    error: function () {
    //    },
    //    success: function (data) {
    //    },
    //});
};


window.onbeforeunload = function () {
    if (closing_window) {
        toDoWhenClosing();
    }
};

};

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