Jeff Johnson is the hero behind StopTheMadness, Hyperlink Unshortener, and different must-have browser and social-media utilities that allow you to override and defeat web sites’ makes an attempt to hijack management of your cursors, mouse, and Management-click. (I gave StopTheMadness 5 out of 5 stars in a Mac Gems overview final 12 months.)
However what has he achieved for us currently? He’s discovered easy methods to disable clean scrolling, a shock function added by Apple in Safari 16.4 for macOS. For those who didn’t discover, with this model of Safari, urgent and releasing the down or up arrow on a Safari web page scrolls the web page constantly till you faucet a key or use a mouse to regain management. The change is baffling. Who requested for this? Why introduce it in mid-stream? And, the largest query of all: why is there no checkbox to disable it?
Johnson has documented a multi-step operation to repair this drawback. You can learn his fast publish or this extra detailed step-by-step right here in case you’re unfamiliar with Safari’s Debug mode and the Terminal.
- Time to finish: 5 minutes
- Instruments required: macOS, the Terminal app
- Supplies required: Safari 16.4
System Settings/Preferences

Foundry
macOS Ventura: Open > System Settings > Privateness & Safety and go to the Privateness part (proven above).
macOS Monterey and older: Open > System Preferences > Safety & Privateness and click on on the Privateness part to open it.
Full Disk Entry

Foundry
macOS Ventura: Click on Full Disk Entry (proven above).
macOS Monterey and older: Choose Full Disk Entry within the left column. Click on the lock icon on the bottom-left of the settings window and authenticate with Contact ID, your password, or a Watch.
Activate Terminal

Foundry
macOS Ventura: Search for Terminal in the principle window and flip its swap on (proven above). You’ll have to enter an administrator username and password after flipping the swap.
macOS Monterey and older: In the principle part of the window, you will notice an inventory of apps. Click on the “+” button and navigate to Purposes > Utilities. It’s best to discover the Terminal app there; choose the Terminal icon after which click on the Open button.
Shut System Settings/Preferences.

Foundry
In each macOS Ventura and Monterey:
- Give up Safari whether it is open.
- Launch the Terminal app (it’s situated in Purposes > Utilities).
- Copy the exact textual content beneath as a single line, paste it into the Terminal on the immediate, and press Return:
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu -bool true
Safari Debug setting

Foundry
In each macOS Ventura and Monterey:
- Give up the Terminal and launch Safari.
- From the brand new Debug menu that seems, select Debug > WebKit Inner Options > EventHandler pushed clean keyboard scrolling. It must be proven with a checkmark, so selecting it’ll take away the checkmark and deactivate the choice.
While you activate the Safari Debug menu, it stays on even after you modify the graceful keyboard scrolling setting. If you wish to take away the Debug menu, repeat step 4, however copy and paste this command into the Terminal as a substitute and hit Return:
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu -bool false
Due to Johnson for uncovering a buried secret that must be a Safari checkbox!
Ask Mac 911
We’ve compiled an inventory of the questions we get requested most continuously, together with solutions and hyperlinks to columns: learn our tremendous FAQ to see in case your query is roofed. If not, we’re all the time searching for new issues to resolve! E-mail yours to mac911@macworld.com, together with display screen captures as applicable and whether or not you need your full identify used. Not each query can be answered, we don’t reply to electronic mail, and we can’t present direct troubleshooting recommendation.