The pointercancel event is fired when the browser determines that there are unlikely to be any more pointer events, or if after the pointerdown event is fired, the pointer is then used to manipulate the viewport by panning, zooming, or scrolling.

Some examples of situations that will trigger a pointercancel event:

A hardware event occurs that cancels the pointer activities. This may include, for example, the user switching applications using an application switcher interface or the "home" button on a mobile device.
The device's screen orientation is changed while the pointer is active.
The browser decides that the user started pointer input accidentally. This can happen if, for example, the hardware supports palm rejection to prevent a hand resting on the display while using a stylus from accidentally triggering events.
The touch-action CSS property prevents the input from continuing.
When the user interacts with too many simultaneous pointers, the browser can fire this event for all existing pointers (even if the user is still touching the screen).

Note: After the pointercancel event is fired, the browser will also send pointerleave.

Syntax

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

addEventListener("pointercancel", (event) => {});

onpointercancel = (event) => {};

Event type

A Event.

Event properties

This interface inherits properties from Event.

PointerEvent.altitudeAngle Read only Experimental: Represents the angle between a transducer (a pointer or stylus) axis and the X-Y plane of a device screen.
PointerEvent.azimuthAngle Read only Experimental: Represents the angle between the Y-Z plane and the plane containing both the transducer (a pointer or stylus) axis and the Y axis.
PointerEvent.persistentDeviceId Read only Experimental: A unique identifier for the pointing device generating the PointerEvent.
PointerEvent.pointerId Read only: A unique identifier for the pointer causing the event.
PointerEvent.width Read only: The width (magnitude on the X axis), in CSS pixels, of the contact geometry of the pointer.
PointerEvent.height Read only: The height (magnitude on the Y axis), in CSS pixels, of the contact geometry of the pointer.
PointerEvent.pressure Read only: The normalized pressure of the pointer input in the range 0 to 1, where 0 and 1 represent the minimum and maximum pressure the hardware is capable of detecting, respectively.
PointerEvent.tangentialPressure Read only: The normalized tangential pressure of the pointer input (also known as barrel pressure or cylinder stress) in the range -1 to 1, where 0 is the neutral position of the control.
PointerEvent.tiltX Read only: The plane angle (in degrees, in the range of -90 to 90) between the Y–Z plane and the plane containing both the pointer (e.g. pen stylus) axis and the Y axis.
PointerEvent.tiltY Read only: The plane angle (in degrees, in the range of -90 to 90) between the X–Z plane and the plane containing both the pointer (e.g. pen stylus) axis and the X axis.
PointerEvent.twist Read only: The clockwise rotation of the pointer (e.g. pen stylus) around its major axis in degrees, with a value in the range 0 to 359.
PointerEvent.pointerType Read only: Indicates the device type that caused the event (mouse, pen, touch, etc.).
PointerEvent.isPrimary Read only: Indicates if the pointer represents the primary pointer of this pointer type.

Examples

Using addEventListener():

const para = document.querySelector("p");

para.addEventListener("pointercancel", (event) => {
  console.log("Pointer event cancelled");
});

Using the onpointercancel event handler property:

const para = document.querySelector("p");

para.onpointercancel = (event) => {
  console.log("Pointer event cancelled");
};

Specifications

Specification
Pointer Events # dom-globaleventhandlers-onpointercancel

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser