diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/issue-4568 b/changelog/unreleased/issue-4568
index 4d44809c5..fedf373ea 100644
--- a/changelog/unreleased/issue-4568
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/issue-4568
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ The `forget` command now fails with an error if all snapshots in a snapshot
 group would be deleted. This prevents the above example from deleting all
 snapshots.
 
+It is possible to temporarily disable the new check by setting the environment variable
+`RESTIC_FEATURES=safe-forget-keep-tags=false`. Note that this feature flag
+will be removed in the next minor restic version.
+
 https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/4568
 https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/4764
 https://forum.restic.net/t/delete-all-snapshots-in-one-command-is-this-feature-intentional/6923/3
diff --git a/cmd/restic/cmd_forget.go b/cmd/restic/cmd_forget.go
index 328b28271..9c40b1d09 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/cmd_forget.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/cmd_forget.go
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 	"strconv"
 
 	"github.com/restic/restic/internal/errors"
+	"github.com/restic/restic/internal/feature"
 	"github.com/restic/restic/internal/restic"
 	"github.com/restic/restic/internal/ui/termstatus"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
@@ -258,7 +259,7 @@ func runForget(ctx context.Context, opts ForgetOptions, pruneOptions PruneOption
 
 			keep, remove, reasons := restic.ApplyPolicy(snapshotGroup, policy)
 
-			if !policy.Empty() && len(keep) == 0 {
+			if feature.Flag.Enabled(feature.SafeForgetKeepTags) && !policy.Empty() && len(keep) == 0 {
 				return fmt.Errorf("refusing to delete last snapshot of snapshot group \"%v\"", key.String())
 			}
 			if len(keep) != 0 && !gopts.Quiet && !gopts.JSON {
diff --git a/internal/feature/registry.go b/internal/feature/registry.go
index ac4105140..74d8a2f61 100644
--- a/internal/feature/registry.go
+++ b/internal/feature/registry.go
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ const (
 	DeprecateLegacyIndex    FlagName = "deprecate-legacy-index"
 	DeprecateS3LegacyLayout FlagName = "deprecate-s3-legacy-layout"
 	DeviceIDForHardlinks    FlagName = "device-id-for-hardlinks"
+	SafeForgetKeepTags      FlagName = "safe-forget-keep-tags"
 )
 
 func init() {
@@ -17,5 +18,6 @@ func init() {
 		DeprecateLegacyIndex:    {Type: Beta, Description: "disable support for index format used by restic 0.1.0. Use `restic repair index` to update the index if necessary."},
 		DeprecateS3LegacyLayout: {Type: Beta, Description: "disable support for S3 legacy layout used up to restic 0.7.0. Use `RESTIC_FEATURES=deprecate-s3-legacy-layout=false restic migrate s3_layout` to migrate your S3 repository if necessary."},
 		DeviceIDForHardlinks:    {Type: Alpha, Description: "store deviceID only for hardlinks to reduce metadata changes for example when using btrfs subvolumes. Will be removed in a future restic version after repository format 3 is available"},
+		SafeForgetKeepTags:      {Type: Beta, Description: "prevent deleting all snapshots if the tag passed to `forget --keep-tags tagname` does not exist"},
 	})
 }