{"id":14521,"date":"2026-09-24T10:32:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playgama.com\/blog\/?p=14521"},"modified":"2026-09-24T10:32:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:32:02","slug":"how-to-implement-autosave-triggers-when-closing-or-backgroun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playgama.com\/blog\/business-faqs\/how-to-implement-autosave-triggers-when-closing-or-backgroun\/","title":{"rendered":"How to implement autosave triggers when closing or backgrounding a browser tab?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen for the visibilitychange event (state ‘hidden’) and the pagehide event, then run your save function immediately and synchronously. Do not rely on beforeunload for mobile browsers. Save to storage that survives tab closure, not sessionStorage, and keep the write small and fast.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a glance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Fact<\/th>\nValue<\/th>\nSource<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Event that fires on tab backgrounding<\/td>\nvisibilitychange<\/td>\ndeveloper.mozilla.org<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
sessionStorage survives tab close<\/td>\nno, destroyed<\/td>\ndeveloper.mozilla.org<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Godot pauses when tab inactive<\/td>\ntrue, by browser<\/td>\ndocs.godotengine.org<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Attach a listener to document.addEventListener('visibilitychange', ...)<\/code> and check document.visibilityState === 'hidden'<\/code> – this fires reliably when a tab is backgrounded or closed, on desktop and mobile. Also listen for pagehide<\/code>, which fires on tab close and is more consistent on mobile browsers than beforeunload<\/code>. Call your save function synchronously in both handlers; don’t queue an async request that might not finish before the page is torn down.<\/p>\n

Where you save matters as much as when. MDN notes that closing the browser tab destroys all sessionStorage data associated with that tab<\/a>, so sessionStorage is the wrong place for progress you want to keep. Use localStorage or, for cross-device persistence, a cloud save API. For multi-platform games, the Playgama Bridge Storage module picks the most suitable storage automatically, including cloud saves where available (see the Bridge guide<\/a>).<\/p>\n

What about the game engine’s own pause behaviour?<\/h2>\n