How to Reset a File input in React

In this tutorial, we are going to learn about How to Reset a File input in React with the help of an example.

Resetting a File input in React

To reset a file input in React, we can set the event.target.value = null to the input element’s event object. By setting the input element’s target.value property to null resets the file input.

Here is an example:

import React from 'react';

const App = () => {

  const handleFileChange = (event) => {
    // resetting the file input
    event.target.value = null;
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <input type="file" onChange={handleFileChange} />
    </div>
  );
};

export default App;

In the example above, we have added the event.target.value = null to the handleChange function, so whenever a data is changed in the input element it resets the file.

Resetting the file input by Button click

To reset a file input by clicking the button:

1. Access the input element dom object using the useRef() hook.

2. Add the inputRef.current.value = null to the button click event handler function, so whenever a user click the reset button resets the input file.

import {useRef} from 'react';

const App = () => {

  // creating the ref for file input
  const inputRef = useRef(null);

  const resetFileInput = () => {
    // resetting the input value
    inputRef.current.value = null;
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <input ref={inputRef} type="file" />
      <button onClick={resetFileInput}>Reset file</button>
    </div>
  );
};

The useRef() hook returns a mutable refernce object of the passed element, whose .current property is initialized to the passed argument as initialValue.