Check if page gets reloaded or refreshed in JavaScript

I want to check when someone tries to refresh a page.

For example, when I open a page nothing happens but when I refresh the page it should display an alert.

Solution 1:

⚠️⚠️⚠️ window.performance.navigation.type is deprecated, pls see Илья Зеленько's answer

A better way to know that the page is actually reloaded is to use the navigator object that is supported by most modern browsers.

It uses the Navigation Timing API.

//check for Navigation Timing API support
if (window.performance) {
  console.info("window.performance works fine on this browser");
}
console.info(performance.navigation.type);
if (performance.navigation.type == performance.navigation.TYPE_RELOAD) {
  console.info( "This page is reloaded" );
} else {
  console.info( "This page is not reloaded");
}

source : https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigation_timing_API

Solution 2:

New standard 2018-now (PerformanceNavigationTiming)

window.performance.navigation property is deprecated in the Navigation Timing Level 2 specification. Please use the PerformanceNavigationTiming interface instead.

PerformanceNavigationTiming.type

This is an experimental technology.

Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

Check if page gets reloaded or refreshed in JavaScript

const pageAccessedByReload = (
  (window.performance.navigation && window.performance.navigation.type === 1) ||
    window.performance
      .getEntriesByType('navigation')
      .map((nav) => nav.type)
      .includes('reload')
);

alert(pageAccessedByReload);

Support on 2021-11-09

The type read-only property returns a string representing the type of navigation. The value must be one of the following:

• navigate — Navigation started by clicking a link, entering the URL in the browser's address bar, form submission, or initializing through a script operation other than reload and back_forward as listed below.

• reload — Navigation is through the browser's reload operation or location.reload().

• back_forward — Navigation is through the browser's history traversal operation.

• prerender — Navigation is initiated by a prerender hint.

This property is Read only.

The following example illustrates this property's usage.

function print_nav_timing_data() {
  // Use getEntriesByType() to just get the "navigation" events
  var perfEntries = performance.getEntriesByType("navigation");

  for (var i=0; i < perfEntries.length; i++) {
    console.log("= Navigation entry[" + i + "]");
    var p = perfEntries[i];
    // dom Properties
    console.log("DOM content loaded = " + (p.domContentLoadedEventEnd - p.domContentLoadedEventStart));
    console.log("DOM complete = " + p.domComplete);
    console.log("DOM interactive = " + p.interactive);
 
    // document load and unload time
    console.log("document load = " + (p.loadEventEnd - p.loadEventStart));
    console.log("document unload = " + (p.unloadEventEnd - p.unloadEventStart));
    
    // other properties
    console.log("type = " + p.type);
    console.log("redirectCount = " + p.redirectCount);
  }
}

Solution 3:

First step is to check sessionStorage for some pre-defined value and if it exists alert user:

if (sessionStorage.getItem("is_reloaded")) alert('Reloaded!');

Second step is to set sessionStorage to some value (for example true):

sessionStorage.setItem("is_reloaded", true);

Session values kept until page is closed so it will work only if page reloaded in a new tab with the site. You can also keep reload count the same way.