diff --git a/be/src/common/config.cpp b/be/src/common/config.cpp
index b1b18ed0ed0a34..e754917e016f8f 100644
--- a/be/src/common/config.cpp
+++ b/be/src/common/config.cpp
@@ -1289,6 +1289,9 @@ DEFINE_Int64(s3_file_system_local_upload_buffer_size, "5242880");
 //JVM monitoring enable. To prevent be from crashing due to jvm compatibility issues. The default setting is off.
 DEFINE_Bool(enable_jvm_monitor, "false");
 
+// Skip loading stale rowset meta when initializing `TabletMeta` from protobuf
+DEFINE_mBool(skip_loading_stale_rowset_meta, "false");
+
 // clang-format off
 #ifdef BE_TEST
 // test s3
diff --git a/be/src/common/config.h b/be/src/common/config.h
index 8df54c25318cad..b1a825a462bdee 100644
--- a/be/src/common/config.h
+++ b/be/src/common/config.h
@@ -1367,6 +1367,9 @@ DECLARE_Int64(s3_file_system_local_upload_buffer_size);
 //JVM monitoring enable. To prevent be from crashing due to jvm compatibility issues.
 DECLARE_Bool(enable_jvm_monitor);
 
+// Skip loading stale rowset meta when initializing `TabletMeta` from protobuf
+DECLARE_mBool(skip_loading_stale_rowset_meta);
+
 #ifdef BE_TEST
 // test s3
 DECLARE_String(test_s3_resource);
diff --git a/be/src/olap/tablet_meta.cpp b/be/src/olap/tablet_meta.cpp
index b148ac44b221bf..43f31a9756d72a 100644
--- a/be/src/olap/tablet_meta.cpp
+++ b/be/src/olap/tablet_meta.cpp
@@ -574,17 +574,10 @@ void TabletMeta::init_from_pb(const TabletMetaPB& tablet_meta_pb) {
         _rs_metas.push_back(std::move(rs_meta));
     }
 
-    // init _stale_rs_metas
-    for (auto& it : tablet_meta_pb.stale_rs_metas()) {
-        RowsetMetaSharedPtr rs_meta(new RowsetMeta());
-        rs_meta->init_from_pb(it);
-        _stale_rs_metas.push_back(std::move(rs_meta));
-    }
-
     // For mow table, delete bitmap of stale rowsets has not been persisted.
     // When be restart, query should not read the stale rowset, otherwise duplicate keys
     // will be read out. Therefore, we don't add them to _stale_rs_meta for mow table.
-    if (!_enable_unique_key_merge_on_write) {
+    if (!config::skip_loading_stale_rowset_meta && !_enable_unique_key_merge_on_write) {
         for (auto& it : tablet_meta_pb.stale_rs_metas()) {
             RowsetMetaSharedPtr rs_meta(new RowsetMeta());
             rs_meta->init_from_pb(it);