diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS b/CONTRIBUTORS
index 1aa23d721..f304612ec 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ Andrew Gaul <andrew@gaul.org>
 kenden
 Nickolay Yudin <kelciour@gmail.com>
 neitrinoweb <github.com/neitrinoweb/>
-Andreas Reis <github.com/rathsky>
+Andreas Reis <github.com/nwwt>
 Matt Krump <github.com/mkrump>
 Alexander Presnyakov <flagist0@gmail.com>
 abdo <github.com/abdnh>
diff --git a/qt/aqt/__init__.py b/qt/aqt/__init__.py
index 8fa8360c4..6dfcc858b 100644
--- a/qt/aqt/__init__.py
+++ b/qt/aqt/__init__.py
@@ -319,6 +319,9 @@ def parseArgs(argv):
     parser.add_argument("-p", "--profile", help="profile name to load", default="")
     parser.add_argument("-l", "--lang", help="interface language (en, de, etc)")
     parser.add_argument("-v", "--version", help="print the Anki version and exit")
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "-s", "--safemode", help="disable addons and automatic syncing"
+    )
     return parser.parse_known_args(argv[1:])
 
 
diff --git a/qt/aqt/main.py b/qt/aqt/main.py
index a20ea514e..8cea38bcc 100644
--- a/qt/aqt/main.py
+++ b/qt/aqt/main.py
@@ -112,7 +112,9 @@ class AnkiQt(QMainWindow):
         self.app = app
         self.pm = profileManager
         # init rest of app
-        self.safeMode = self.app.queryKeyboardModifiers() & Qt.ShiftModifier
+        self.safeMode = (
+            self.app.queryKeyboardModifiers() & Qt.ShiftModifier
+        ) or self.opts.safemode
         try:
             self.setupUI()
             self.setupAddons(args)