diff --git a/client/Makefile b/client/Makefile
index 3199fc20..07c5b9b8 100644
--- a/client/Makefile
+++ b/client/Makefile
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ smoke-test:
 .PHONY: smoke-test-annotations
 smoke-test-annotations:
 	start_server_and_test \
-		'CXG_OPTIONS="--experimental-annotations --experimental-annotations-file $(ANNOTATIONS)" $(MAKE) start-server' \
+		'AUTOSAVE_ENABLED=false CXG_OPTIONS="--experimental-annotations --experimental-annotations-file $(ANNOTATIONS)" $(MAKE) start-server' \
 		$(CXG_SERVER_PORT) \
 		'$(MAKE) e2e-annotations'
 
diff --git a/client/src/components/autosave/index.js b/client/src/components/autosave/index.js
index 971d04d6..fedf213d 100644
--- a/client/src/components/autosave/index.js
+++ b/client/src/components/autosave/index.js
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ class Autosave extends React.Component {
     /* return true if we need to save, false if we don't */
     const { obsAnnotations, lastSavedObsAnnotations } = this.props;
     return (
-      lastSavedObsAnnotations && obsAnnotations !== lastSavedObsAnnotations
+      globals.autosaveEnabled && lastSavedObsAnnotations && obsAnnotations !== lastSavedObsAnnotations
     );
   };
 
diff --git a/client/src/globals.js b/client/src/globals.js
index 8e4219b8..ec6a0f7a 100644
--- a/client/src/globals.js
+++ b/client/src/globals.js
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 import { Colors } from "@blueprintjs/core";
 import { dispatchNetworkErrorMessageToUser } from "./util/actionHelpers";
 
+/* flags for testing */
+export const autosaveEnabled = process.env.AUTOSAVE_ENABLED ? process.env.AUTOSAVE_ENABLED === "true" : true;
+
 /* if a categorical metadata field has more options than this, truncate */
 export const maxCategoricalOptionsToDisplay = 100;