How to Move from Arc to Zen Browser, Spaces Included

Zen Browser is the closest thing to Arc that's still being built, and since late October it can import your Arc Spaces directly. Here's how to do it before Arc stops opening on 22 December.

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For most of the past year, moving from Arc to Zen Browser meant exporting bookmarks, running a community script, and rebuilding your Spaces by hand. That changed with Zen 1.24b on 28 October 2026, whose release notes say simply: "You can now import Spaces and Profiles from Arc and Dia."

The importer reads Arc's sidebar file directly, so your Spaces arrive as Spaces, not as a pile of bookmark folders. It works on both Mac and Windows.

What comes across, and what doesn't

Before you start

1. Update Arc and make sure it still opens. Zen reads Arc's files from your computer, so do this before 22 December, while you can still check the result against Arc.
2. Pin anything you want to keep. The importer is built around Arc's sidebar structure. Open tabs that aren't pinned may not come across.
3. Save your Easels if you use them: in Arc, go to Library → Easels → Export All Easels. You get a ZIP with each Easel as a web page.
4. Back up Arc's sidebar file. It's the only copy of your Spaces structure. On Mac it's ~/Library/Application Support/Arc/StorableSidebar.json; copy it somewhere safe.
5. Make a list of your extensions. You'll reinstall them from Firefox's add-on store.

Step by step

1. Install Zen 1.24b or later from zen-browser.app. If you already have Zen, check that it has updated to 1.24b or newer.
2. Quit Arc. Chromium-based browsers lock their files while running, which can make imports fail or come out incomplete.
3. Open the import wizard. It appears on first run. In an existing install, open Bookmarks → Manage Bookmarks (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+O) → Import and Backup → Import Data from Another Browser.
4. Choose Arc as the source, and tick Spaces and pinned tabs along with bookmarks, history and passwords.
5. Pick the Default profile. The sidebar import is offered only for Arc's default profile.
6. Run it once. One user report says a second run duplicates everything, so if something looks wrong, delete the imported Spaces before trying again.

When it finishes, your Spaces appear as icons at the bottom of the sidebar, and your Arc Favorites sit in the Essentials row at the top.

After the import

• Reinstall your extensions. Most popular ones (1Password, Bitwarden, uBlock Origin, Grammarly, Raindrop) have Firefox versions. Search addons.mozilla.org for each.
• Set up containers if you separated work and personal life with Arc profiles. In Zen, each Space can have a default Firefox container, which keeps its cookies and logins apart. Note that the importer doesn't map Arc profiles to containers for you.
• Learn the Arc equivalents:
  • Peek → Glance. Alt+click a link to preview it on top of the current page. Links opened from Essentials or pinned tabs open in Glance automatically.
  • Split View → Split View. Up to four tabs, in horizontal, vertical or grid layouts.
  • Hidden sidebar → Compact Mode. It hides the sidebar until you hover; toggle it with Ctrl+S.
  • Command Bar → address bar. Zen's URL bar searches tabs, bookmarks and history, though it's less of a launcher than Arc's.

If the importer doesn't work for you

If you're on an older Zen build, or have more than one Arc profile, there are two fallbacks:

• Bookmarks file: convert Arc's sidebar to a bookmarks HTML file with a tool such as arc-export, then in Zen open Manage Bookmarks → Import and Backup → Import Bookmarks from HTML. They land in the Bookmarks Menu folder rather than in Spaces.
• Community scripts: arc2zen writes Spaces, pinned tabs and Essentials straight into Zen's session file. It's unofficial, so back up your Zen profile first.

For passwords on their own, export a CSV from Arc at arc://password-manager/settings, then import it in Zen at about:logins → ⋯ → Import from a File. Delete the CSV afterwards; it's plain text.

Is Zen the right move?

If Arc's sidebar and Spaces were the reason you used it, yes: nothing else is as close. If you depend on a Chrome-only extension or used Arc's AI features, look at Dia or Vivaldi instead. Our Arc alternatives guide compares all the options, and the Brave vs Zen and Firefox vs Zen comparisons show how Zen stacks up against its closest rivals.

Sources

• Zen Browser: release notes, Arc importer source (PR #16130), user report on duplicate imports, and the Glance, Split View and Workspaces docs
• The Browser Company: How do I export my data from Arc?