Arc shuts down on December 22, 2026: how to keep your spaces and tabs

The dates

Arc's help center published the timeline on October 22, 2026, the same day it stopped taking new Arc accounts.

• November 23, 2026. Arc for Mac starts showing reminders about the shutdown.
• December 15, 2026. The last day to ask for a copy of your Arc account data. Arc says that copy covers your account details and how you used Arc. It does not include your history or passwords, because those live on your Mac.
• December 22, 2026. Arc stops working and sign-in ends. Every Arc account is deactivated, and personal data tied to an account is deleted within 30 days.

The line on that page that matters most: after December 22 you won't be able to open Arc to get to your spaces, tabs or other browsing data.

Your setup is on your Mac today

Everything you built in Arc sits in files on your disk. The whole sidebar, with every space, pinned tab, folder and favorite, is one file: ~/Library/Application Support/Arc/StorableSidebar.json. History, saved passwords and cookies are in Arc's profiles in the User Data folder next to it.

Those are the files Rio reads. When I moved, that was 4 spaces, 38 pinned tabs and 29 favorites, and it came over in one click.

Keep everything in one step

1. Download Rio from the download link. It is free. Rio is made for the Mac: Apple silicon, macOS 13 or later.
2. Install it. Rio.dmg opens as an install window. Drag Rio into Applications. Rio is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so macOS asks once and you click Open.
3. Click Bring everything over. The first screen lists what comes over, with every item checked. Uncheck anything you want to leave behind.
4. Allow the keychain prompt. macOS asks once whether Rio may read Arc Safe Storage. Allow it and your saved passwords and sign-ins come over too.
5. Reinstall your extensions. Rio lists the extensions you had in Arc. Reinstall next to each one opens its Chrome Web Store install prompt.

At the end Rio shows a summary of what it brought over, for example "Imported 2 profiles, 4 spaces, 9 pinned tabs, 3 Today tabs, 2 favorites", plus history, passwords and cookies.

What comes over

• Spaces, with their names, icons and theme colors
• Profiles, so spaces on different Arc profiles keep separate logins
• Pinned tabs and folders
• Favorites
• Today tabs
• Bookmarks, as a pinned folder named Imported bookmarks
• History
• Saved passwords
• Sign-ins (cookies, site storage and site permissions), so sites stay logged in
• Saved addresses
• Your default search engine
• Extensions, listed to reinstall from the Chrome Web Store

Arc's own Export Data button saves your sidebar as a Markdown file of links, and Arc's help center says you then add those links to a new browser yourself. Rio rebuilds the sidebar instead: your Work space comes back as a Work space, with its folders, its icon and its colors. The difference is in How to export your Arc spaces, pinned tabs and favorites.

Do it now, while Arc still opens

Rio reads Arc's files without changing them, so Arc keeps working as before. That makes the weeks before December 22 the easy time to move: import, then keep both open for a few days and check that every space looks right.

If you skipped the first screen, open Settings, General, Import from Arc. If you already imported once, Rio asks whether to replace the earlier import.

After the move

Your spaces are in the bar at the bottom of the sidebar. Swipe with two fingers to move between them, or press Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 to jump to one, the same keys Arc used. The full list is in The Arc keyboard shortcuts that work in Rio.

• Move from Arc to Rio, the full walkthrough
• Spaces in Rio
• Rio vs Arc

Download Rio for Mac