Arc closes in December. The work starts with your tabs

Arc users have two months to move their desktop browsing elsewhere. The Browser Company’s farewell notice sets December 22 as the end of access on macOS and Windows, while mobile users begin losing account and AI features on November 23. New account creation has already stopped.

That makes this more consequential than a browser entering maintenance mode. A working installation is not a long-term fallback when the announced plan removes access to the application. The useful task now is to separate the things Arc stores from the habits built around them: a list of addresses is easier to move than a carefully arranged workspace.

One browser, several exit dates

The distinction between the mobile platforms matters. The notice describes a reduced browser continuing on iOS. Android is headed for full deprecation. Neither should be treated as a way to preserve the synchronized desktop environment indefinitely.

The company also says personal data associated with deactivated Arc accounts will be deleted within 30 days. That is a separate process from exporting the material you want to keep. An account deletion policy cannot reconstruct a folder you forgot to transfer.

Moving a setup is more than copying bookmarks

Dia, the company’s replacement browser, has a direct import route. Arc’s Spaces become Profiles and folders become Tab Groups; pinned tabs and favorites can retain their names. The familiar vocabulary changes, so checking the result is worthwhile even when an importer reports success.

A useful migration check starts with one work task. Open the sites needed for it, confirm the correct accounts are signed in, and make sure extensions still perform their intended function. Then check a personal profile separately. The point of separating contexts is lost if the move leaves a work account active in the wrong place.

For another browser, Arc offers an export of tabs as links. That gives you a portable inventory, not a promise that every destination will reproduce Arc’s organization. Keep the export until you have opened the important items in the new browser. A file existing on disk proves it was saved; it does not prove its contents cover everything you depend on.

There is also a security distinction between an ordinary list of links and a file containing credentials. Follow the relevant export instructions and avoid placing sensitive exports in shared folders. You do not need to send a browser migration file to anyone offering unsolicited help.

Familiar layout, different product

Dia combines profiles and split views with features that draw on connected work tools. Those are separate decisions: importing a browsing setup does not mean every available integration needs access to it. Review the permissions for the services you actually intend to connect.

Our coverage of managed Firefox installations explains another side of this choice: convenience and control depend on how the browser is administered, not only how its tabs look. For individual Arc users, the equivalent question is which parts of the old workflow are essential and which can be left behind.

The deadline is in December, but the best time to discover a missing pinned page is while Arc can still show you where it was.