HTMLMediaElement: load() method

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The HTMLMediaElement method load() resets the media element to its initial state and begins the process of selecting a media source and loading the media in preparation for playback to begin at the beginning.

The amount of media data that is prefetched is determined by the value of the element's preload attribute.

This method is generally only useful when you've made dynamic changes to the set of sources available for the media element, either by changing the element's src attribute or by adding or removing <source> elements nested within the media element itself. load() will reset the element and rescan the available sources, thereby causing the changes to take effect.

Syntax

load()

Parameters

None.

Return value

None (undefined).

Usage notes

Calling load() aborts all ongoing operations involving this media element, then begins the process of selecting and loading an appropriate media resource given the options specified in the <audio> or <video> element and its src attribute or child <source> element(s). This is described in more detail in the HTML video and audio page.

The process of aborting any ongoing activities will cause any outstanding Promises returned by play() being fulfilled or rejected as appropriate based on their status before the loading of new media can begin. Pending play promises are aborted with an "AbortError" DOMException.

Appropriate events will be sent to the media element itself as the load process proceeds:

If the element is already in the process of loading media, that load process is aborted and the abort event is sent.
If the element has already been initialized with media, the emptied event is sent.
If resetting the playback position to the beginning of the media actually changes the playback position (that is, it was not already at the beginning), a timeupdate event is sent.
Once media has been selected and loading is ready to begin, the loadstart event is delivered.
From this point onward, events are sent just like any media load.

Examples

This example finds a <video> element in the document and resets it by calling load().

js
const mediaElem = document.querySelector("video");
mediaElem.load();

Specifications

Specification

HTML
# dom-media-load-dev

Browser compatibility

Enable JavaScript to view this browser compatibility table.

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This page was last modified on Apr 10, 2025 by MDN contributors.

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