Disable pull to reload in Safari

You can either disable it directly using this command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugDisableRefreshControl 1

Or indirectly by enabling the Debug menu using the command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1

Then going to Debug > Miscellaneous Flags > Disable Pull-to-Refresh

You have to quit and restart Safari after running either command for them to take effect. You can hide the Debug menu after enabling the flag and it'll stick. Replace the 1 with 0 and rerun to undo either command.

If anyone at Apple sees this, this really should be a surface level setting, we shouldn't need to jump through these hoops to disable this feature. It's a mobile-first feature to compensate for the lack of keyboard shortcuts and limited space for toolbar buttons; it has no place on a desktop browser. Even if you could argue that it's fine on a desktop, it's is far too sensitive as it currently stands and results in a lot of unintentional refreshes.

To everyone with this problem - you need to tell Apple. They don't read posts here except for moderation, so give them feedback. The consensus here is that things have more chance of getting changed if Apple gets lots of feedback about them.

Product Feedback - Apple

While waiting for a fix** try another browser. I use Firefox and it's fine (and free). I'd caution against Chrome because in my experience Google apps download a load of background stuff which, sooner or later, will annoy even the most saintly.

** "fix", of course, implies that it's broken. Apple might have other ideas.

Unfortunately it can’t be disabled.

Wow, I hate this new "feature". I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally wiped a fully filled out form simply by scrolling up. I even lost flight bookings this way! Apple, you must please at least give us an option to disable this terrible mess!

This is one of the worst features I’ve ever encountered on any Mac device. I typically don’t comment on any of the post here but after scrolling just a bit too far or too hard and had it clear something I’ve spent an hour working on I thought maybe I would put my opinion out there. This is such an unhelpful and unnecessary feature and it makes no sense why anyone would ever have thought this was a good idea or how none of the designers or engineers or whoever put this together how they didn’t foresee this causing a lot of problems for their customers. Why not put a toggle on there to turn it off or if nothing else put out an extension that would disable it. This is a horrible oversight.

[deleted... /viking]