Webkit currently just returns, all other major browsers do a type check and throw an error var reader = new FileReader(); reader.onloadend = function(e) { console.log(e); } reader.readAsArrayBuffer(null); https://jsbin.com/zonagopuhi/edit?html,js,console,output https://trac.webkit.org/browser/webkit/trunk/Source/WebCore/fileapi/FileReader.cpp#L79 Here is the Chrome commit which added type checking for FileReader https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/blink-reviews/vZxyVFHJ7MU