Get rid of default annoyances in MySQL Workbench

By default, if you make any changes to table rows, there is an annoying 2-step confirmation dialog when you click Apply. It also prevents you from doing many mass UPDATEs and DELETEs (this is called ‘Safe Updates’).

Safe Updates is a good idea in principle, since it stops you from running a DELETE without a WHERE clause, for example. But at the same time it prevents you from running an UPDATE/DELETE with a WHERE based on a column other than an ID, which I find myself doing sometimes.

The confirmation dialog seems utterly pointless. You already have to click the ‘Apply’ button in the lower right corner to get your query to run, anyway.

To turn off these options:

1. In the menu, go to Edit > Preferences…
2. Click on the ‘SQL Queries’ tab
3. In the ‘General’ section, uncheck ‘Safe Updates’
4. In the ‘Query Results’ section, uncheck ‘Confirm Data Changes’

These instructions are for version 5.2.47.