Enable Safari’s Hidden Debug Menu
Safari has a hidden “Debug” menu that offers some additional features for debugging the browser, including stress and load tests, sampling, javascript error logging, the ability to intentionally crash a page, and more. Intended for Safari developers, the Debug menu is different from the Developer menu, which is geared more at web developers, although there are a few options in the Debug menu that general web developers would find useful as well, notably advanced cache choices and CSS animation controls. If this sounds confusing, just enable both of them and poke around and you’ll quickly see the differences.
How to Enable Safari’s Hidden Debug Menu
- Quit Safari
- Launch the Terminal and enter the following defaults write command:
- Relaunch Safari
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1
The “Debug” menu will be visible to the far right in Safari’s menubar choices. If you want to disable the menu, go back to the Terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 0
Again you will need to relaunch Safari for changes to take effect.
We’ve poked around in the Debug menu before to stop auto-refreshing in Safari by disabling multi-process windows, that is no longer necessary with the latest version of Safari, however.
[...] Via | OSXDaily [...]
Sorry to disagree with you, a true expert on OS X. I have the latest version of Lion and the latest version of Safari, and if I do not use your trick of disabling the multi-process windows, my Mac is slower than a snail on crutches. Am I the only one?
[...] the iCal menu is probably not quite as useful as the Safari debug menu but it’s still interesting to take a peak at. Great little trick from MacGasm, who used it to [...]
This is so crappy annoying. Good there is a way to change it.
[...] and resolve issues with webpages while on the go. While not as in inclusive as the desktop Safari debug and developer tools, it’s still useful and is easy to enable or disable on the iPhone and [...]
so what do I need to disable so that safari won’t refresh every time I go back on my browsing history.
This is so damn annoying and a waste of time.
Where is your efficiency and productivity apple???
I just tried this four times and it didn’t work. I have never used Terminal before. After I type in the command, do I close Terminal? I tried closing it, and keeping it open, and neither time did the Debug menu appear. I have Safari 5. Thanks.