I have a form with some elements like: The form includes one input of type 'file'. The whole business is wired up to a REST server via `$(form).ajaxSubmit(submitOptions)`, invoked from the submitHandler of the validate plugin, http://bassistance.de/jquery-plugins/jquery-plugin-validation/. Whenever I submit, the form input fields go back to their default values as per the `value` attribute. Is there a way to prevent this? A Chrome DOM breakpoint suggests that this is happening as a result of the machinations of the validation plugin, so I suspect that the issue is there. Central spot in the code: $("#query-upload").validate({ submitHandler: function(form) { $(form).ajaxSubmit(submitOptions); } });