Move from Arc to Rio

Before you start

Rio is made for the Mac: Apple silicon, macOS 13 or later. You need about 360 MB free and Arc still on that Mac. Rio reads Arc's files where Arc keeps them, so run the import before you delete Arc or its data.

Step by step

1. Download Rio. Get Rio.dmg from the download link. It is free.
2. Install it. Rio.dmg opens as an install window. Drag Rio into your Applications folder. If you open Rio straight from the disk image or from Downloads, it offers to move itself into Applications.
3. Open Rio. Rio is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so macOS asks once whether you want to open an app from the internet. Click Open.
4. Click Bring everything over. The first screen says Rio found another browser on this Mac and lists what comes over. Every item starts checked. Uncheck anything you want to leave behind. Spaces and profiles always come over.
5. Allow the keychain prompt. macOS asks once whether Rio may read Arc's keychain key. That key unlocks your saved passwords and sign-ins. If you deny it, everything else still comes over.
6. Reinstall your extensions. Rio lists the extensions Arc had. Click Reinstall next to each one to open its Chrome Web Store install prompt.
7. Read the summary. Rio reports what it brought over, for example "Imported 2 profiles, 4 spaces, 9 pinned tabs, 3 Today tabs, 2 favorites", plus history, passwords and cookies, and how many items it skipped.

What comes over

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

Privacy: everything is read on your Mac

The import reads Arc's files on your disk and writes them into Rio's profile on the same disk. It uploads nothing.

Your spaces, pinned tabs, folders and favorites come from one file, ~/Library/Application Support/Arc/StorableSidebar.json. History, passwords and cookies come from Arc's profiles in the User Data folder next to it. Arc encrypts passwords and cookies with a key it keeps in your login keychain under Arc Safe Storage. That is the item macOS asks you about, and Rio reads it once for the import. Rio has no account, no analytics and no crash reports. The import code is open source, so you can read exactly what it touches in Rio's source on GitHub.

If you skipped it

The first-launch screen asks once. To run the import later, open Settings, General, Import from Arc. If you already imported, Rio asks whether to replace the earlier import.

Next

• Spaces in Rio, to see where everything landed
• Rio vs Arc, feature by feature
• Questions about Rio