Arc, reborn as Art

Check your Mac and your Arc

You need an Apple chip (M1 or newer): Apple menu → About This Mac → Chip. Intel Macs aren't supported yet.

You need Arc 1.170.0 (the final release, and the version the installer was tested on) or 1.169.0 (tested in earlier simulations). Open Arc and sign in at least once. Check the version in Arc: Arc menu → About Arc.

Another version? The installer stops and changes nothing. Update Arc (1.170.0 is the final release) and try again.

Quit Arc, then run one command

Press ⌘Q in Arc. Closing the window isn't enough. Then open Terminal (⌘Space, type “Terminal”) and paste this:

It takes about 40 seconds and asks for nothing. When it says “ArtBrowser is installed”, you're done with this step.

Open ArtBrowser

Find ArtBrowser in the Applications folder inside your home folder, or run open ~/Applications/ArtBrowser.app.

macOS asks to use “Arc Safe Storage”. Enter your Mac password (or use Touch ID) and click Always Allow. That unlocks your saved logins. Your Spaces and tabs are there, as they were in Arc.

To open links in it: System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Default web browser → ArtBrowser.

Apple chip, a supported Arc, Arc's saved data, Arc closed, enough disk space. If any check fails it stops and changes nothing.

Copies your Arc data to ~/Library/Application Support/ArtBrowserBackup. On most Macs this uses almost no extra space.

Gets one 1.9 MB file and checks it against a fingerprint (SHA-256) written into the installer.

Makes ArtBrowser.app from a copy of your Arc, with updates switched off, and signs it on your Mac.

Copies your data into ArtBrowser's own folder. Your Arc app and Arc data are never changed.

Moves the app to ~/Applications. If anything fails before this, it removes what it made.

Your data stays on your Mac. There is no account and no server of ours, so we never receive your tabs, history, passwords or anything else.

• The installer downloads two things: itself, and one small launcher file. It uploads nothing.
• Your data is copied from Arc's folder to ArtBrowser's folder, on the same Mac. Arc's folder isn't changed.
• ArtBrowser blocks its own native requests to Arc's and The Browser Company's services (account, sync, analytics, feature flags). Ordinary web traffic from the browser engine isn't filtered.

• The browser engine is a frozen copy of Chromium 155 and gets no security updates. Be careful on sites you don't trust, keep macOS updated, and use a maintained browser for banking.
• The app is signed on your Mac, not by Apple, so it lacks some of the protections Arc had.
• The backup and the copy both hold your data. Treat them like your Arc folder.
• We tested that it works with Arc's services blocked, but we can't prove every part stays silent. A network monitor will show you.

The official route from the Arc team is Dia, which imports your Arc data.

Read the installer (plain text) and the two programs we add (Launcher.m, LocalServices.m). Look without changing anything with curl -fsSL https://arcreborn.cool.computer/install-artbrowser.sh | bash -s -- --check. Watch its network use in Little Snitch or Activity Monitor. It's all open source on GitHub.

We don't have Arc's source code and we haven't rebuilt Arc. ArtBrowser is your own Arc app, copied, plus two small pieces of ours, so it behaves like Arc but doesn't need Arc's servers.

Arc signs you in to an account and syncs through Apple's iCloud and Google's Firebase. When the account service goes away, Arc could refuse to start or sign you out.

Starts the copied browser on its own data folder, refuses to ever use Arc's, and turns updates and sync off.

A small library loaded into the app. It supplies your saved local identity so Arc starts without signing in, reports iCloud as “no account”, and rejects the app's own native requests to Arc's and The Browser Company's services. It can't filter requests made by other parts of the app, which is why we tested with the network blocked as well.

Changing the app breaks Arc's original signature, so the installer signs it again on your Mac. That is why macOS asks about the Keychain once.

We launched copies with the clock set past 22 December 2026 and into 2027, with no network, with Arc's app and data made unreadable, and with simulated server replies saying “account disabled” or “account deleted”. They kept starting and restoring Spaces. Those replies were synthetic: a real shutdown hasn't happened yet, so we can't promise it.

• Spaces, folders, pinned and open tabs
• Browsing, on ArtBrowser's own data
• A saved Google sign-in, after the Keychain approval
• It doesn't use the Arc app or Arc's folders

• History and bookmarks (copied, and the databases passed integrity checks)
• Extensions load, but password managers such as 1Password ask you to unlock them again, and links to their desktop apps aren't verified
• Saved passwords, passkeys, DRM video, wallet signing

• Arc account, sync and sharing links
• Arc Max and other AI features
• Automatic updates, including browser security fixes
• Intel Macs (not tested)