How to Export Passwords from Arc Browser Safely

You click Export Data in Arc, feel pleased with yourself, open the file, and find Spaces and tabs. No passwords. Three hundred logins, still sitting in Arc, and a shutdown date on the calendar.

This guide shows you how to export passwords from Arc browser, what the resulting file contains, where to send it (a password manager, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Dia, or Cra), and how to get rid of the file without leaving a plaintext copy of your whole digital life lying in Downloads.

The short answer: how to export passwords from Arc browser

Arc exports passwords through its password manager settings, not through the Export Data menu. On desktop, type arc://password-manager/settings into the address bar, find the Export passwords button, confirm your identity, and save the CSV file. The general export covers Spaces and tabs, and that's it.

The exact menu path can shift slightly between Arc versions, but the arc://password-manager/settings address has been the reliable way in. Arc is built on Chromium, so its password manager works much like Chrome's. If you've ever exported from Chrome, this will feel familiar.

Here's the whole thing in five lines:

1. Open a new tab and go to arc://password-manager/settings.
2. Click Export passwords.
3. Authenticate with your Mac login password or Touch ID.
4. Save the CSV somewhere you can find it (not a synced folder).
5. Import it elsewhere, verify, then delete it.

That's the skeleton. The rest of this article is the stuff that goes wrong around it.

Why you should export passwords from Arc browser now, not in December

Arc stops working on 22 December 2026, so your window to export cleanly is finite. The Browser Company announced the sunset on 22 October 2026 and pointed users to Dia. Feature development had already stopped back in May 2025, so Arc hasn't been getting new things for a while. Now it's getting nothing.

You might think: it's still months away, I'll do it later. I'd push back. Password migrations are the one task where procrastination costs you something real. If Arc stops launching, or an update changes how the password manager behaves, you could be locked out of the only copy of some logins. Maybe that's a forum account from 2019. Maybe it's your accountant's portal. You don't want to find out which.

Do it this weekend. It takes about ten minutes per profile.

If you want a second opinion on how the rest of your move should go, our comparison of Zen Browser vs Arc is a good place to start once your passwords are safe.

What Arc's exports actually contain

People mix up Arc's two export paths constantly, and the mix-up is why so many forum threads start with "where did my passwords go?" Only one of the paths touches passwords.

So if you want to export passwords from Arc browser, ignore the Spaces-and-tabs file entirely. It won't have them. Treat each data type as its own job, with its own file and its own cleanup.

Bookmarks and sidebar structure are a separate task. We've got a full guide on that: how to export Arc browser bookmarks before it closes.

Step-by-step: export passwords from Arc browser

The whole process takes under two minutes, but a few details trip people up. Go through it in order.

Step 1: Open the password manager settings

Open Arc and press Command-T to bring up the command bar. Type arc://password-manager/settings and hit Return. You'll land on a page showing your saved passwords settings, with options for offering to save passwords, auto sign-in, and the export and import controls.

If that URL gives you an error or a blank page, try arc://settings/passwords and look for a three-dot menu next to the saved passwords list. Version differences are real here, so check both.

Step 2: Click Export passwords

You'll see a warning. It says, more or less, that your passwords will be visible to anyone who can open the file. Read it. It's not boilerplate. The file really is plaintext.

Click Export passwords again to confirm.

Step 3: Authenticate

macOS will ask for your login password or Touch ID. This is a good thing. It means someone who sits down at your unlocked Mac for thirty seconds can't trivially pull the file.

Step 4: Pick a sensible save location

This is where most people go wrong. The default suggestion is usually Downloads. Downloads isn't normally part of iCloud Drive syncing, but Desktop and Documents are if you've enabled that option, and it's easy to click into the wrong one. Check your settings.

My recommendation: save to a plain local folder you create for the occasion, something like ~/arc-export-temp, outside iCloud, Dropbox and any other sync service. Name the file something boring. You'll delete the whole folder later.

Step 5: Check the file before you trust it

Open the CSV in a text editor (TextEdit works; Numbers and Excel will too, but they can mangle special characters). You should see a header row, usually name,url,username,password,note, followed by one row per saved login.

Count the rows against what you expect. If you had roughly 250 saved logins and the file has 12 rows, something went wrong. Stop and retry before doing anything else.

Don't forget your other Arc profiles

This is the gotcha that bites people with a work and personal split: each Arc profile can hold its own separate set of passwords, so you need to export from every profile you care about.

Arc lets you tie a profile to a space. If you made a "Work" space with its own profile, the logins you saved while in that space live there, not in your default profile. Exporting once from your main space leaves those behind. Easy to miss, painful to discover in January.

The fix is dull but effective:

• Switch to each space: use Control-1 through Control-9 or click the space icons at the bottom of the sidebar.
• Open the password settings in that space: the same arc://password-manager/settings address, but now you're looking at that profile's store.
• Export and name the file by profile: arc-personal.csv, arc-work.csv. You'll thank yourself during import.

If you're unsure how many profiles you've got, open Arc's settings and look through the profile list, then run the export once for each entry. A profile with nothing saved produces a header-only file, which is harmless. Delete it with the rest.

The CSV is plaintext, so handle it like cash

Anyone who can open that file can read every password in it, with no further authentication. There's no encryption, no password on the file, nothing. Your bank, your email, your cloud console, all sitting in rows.

That shouldn't scare you off exporting. It should make you fast and tidy about it. The window between export and deletion is the risk, so keep it short.

Save the CSV in a folder you created for it, outside iCloud Drive, Dropbox and Google Drive, and delete the folder, not just the file.

A few specific hazards worth naming:

• Cloud sync: if the file lands in iCloud Drive, Dropbox or Google Drive, it gets copied to servers and other devices. Deleting it locally might not wipe every copy right away.
• Time Machine: a backup that runs between export and deletion will hold a copy. For most people that's an acceptable risk, since Time Machine backups can be encrypted, but check yours is. If it isn't, consider pausing it while you work.
• Email and chat: never send the file to yourself "for later". People do. Don't.
• Spotlight indexing: Spotlight will index the contents of text files, so your passwords might be searchable for a while. Deleting the file removes them from the index.
• Shared Macs: if anyone else uses your account or sits at your desk, do this when you're alone.

Where to send the file: choosing a destination

For most people, a dedicated password manager is the best destination, because it outlives whatever browser you use next. I'd point a Mac user who's about to switch browsers at 1Password or Bitwarden, and a Mac-and-iPhone household that hates subscriptions at iCloud Passwords. Here's how the options compare.

My own view: if you're going to be shuffling browsers anyway (and Arc users, by definition, are about to), get your passwords out of the browser entirely. A password manager means the next time a browser gets sunset, you won't need to export passwords from Arc browser or anything like it ever again.

Moving to a dedicated password manager

Every mainstream password manager has a CSV import, and the Chrome-format CSV that Arc produces is one of the most widely supported. The general flow is the same everywhere:

1. Open the password manager's import function (usually under Settings, Import, or File).
2. Choose Chrome or Chromium CSV as the source format. Arc's file uses the same columns.
3. Select your CSV and confirm the import.
4. Spot-check ten or fifteen entries by opening them and comparing usernames.
5. Test two or three real logins, ideally including one with a long, ugly password.

If the manager asks you to map columns manually, match url to website, username to username, password to password, and note to notes. Duplicates are common if you already had some of these logins in the manager. Most tools offer a merge or skip option. Skip is safer.

Moving to Chrome, Safari or Firefox

All three can import a Chrome-format CSV directly. In Chrome it's under chrome://password-manager/settings, in Safari it's File → Import From → Passwords CSV File on recent macOS versions, and in Firefox you open about:logins and use the menu to import from a file. Menu names change between releases, so if yours differs, search the app's settings for "import passwords".

Safari and iCloud Keychain are worth a mention for the simple reason that they sync to your iPhone with no extra work. If you're a Mac-and-iPhone household and don't want another subscription, that's a legitimate choice.

Moving to Dia

The Browser Company says passwords and other Arc data can transfer to Dia, and Dia offers a direct import from Arc. If you're heading to Dia, that built-in importer may mean you never touch a CSV at all. Use it if it works, and still export passwords from Arc browser as a backup, store that in your password manager, then delete the loose file.

Dia is a very different product from Arc, though. It's AI-first, and the sidebar workflow that made Arc feel like Arc isn't the point. My take: if you want an assistant built into everyday browsing, try Dia. If what you loved about Arc was the sidebar, spaces and pinned tabs, skip it and look at Cra or Zen instead.

Moving to Cra

Cra handles this one differently, and it's simpler. On first launch, Cra can import passwords and sign-ins straight from Dia, Chrome, Brave, Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, Helium, Firefox, Zen and Safari, and it imports Arc's spaces, pinned tabs, folders, favorites and archive directly from Arc's files on disk. There's no export step for that, Arc doesn't need to be running, and there's no deadline for the import. You can trigger it later from the Cra menu → Import, or Settings → Advanced. The details are on the import help page.

To be precise about what that means for you: Cra's Arc import covers your sidebar structure. For passwords, the practical route is to export your Arc passwords as the CSV described above and import that into a password manager, or into one of the browsers Cra can pull sign-ins from. If you've already moved your logins into Chrome or Firefox, Cra can bring them across from there.

Cra is free, MIT licensed, and has no account, no server and no telemetry. It's a native macOS app on Chromium for Apple silicon Macs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later. It's also young. If you want a mature, battle-tested browser with a decade of polish, Cra isn't that yet. What it is: Arc's sidebar workflow, kept alive. More on how it handles data on the privacy page and the security page.

Verify before you delete

Never delete the CSV until you've confirmed the passwords work in the new place. Deleting too early is the one irreversible mistake when you export passwords from Arc browser, because once Arc stops launching, the CSV may be your only copy.

Here's a verification routine that doesn't take long:

• Count: compare the number of entries in the new manager with the number of rows in the CSV (minus the header).
• Spot-check: open at least ten entries across different sites, including some old ones.
• Live test: actually sign in to three or four important services. Email, bank, a work tool.
• Check special characters: passwords with quotes, commas or non-English characters are the ones that break. Test one if you've got it.
• Check notes and extra URLs: some imports drop the note field. If you used notes for security questions, look at them specifically.

If something's missing, you've still got the CSV. Fix it now, while you can.

Deleting the CSV properly

Dragging the file to the Trash isn't the end of it. Empty the Trash, then hunt down any other copies, because Finder, sync clients and backups all like to keep one.

A proper cleanup looks like this:

1. Delete the CSV from the folder you saved it to.
2. Empty the Trash (Finder → Empty Trash, or Shift-Command-Delete).
3. If you used a temporary folder, delete that too.
4. Check Downloads, Desktop and Documents for stray copies. Search Finder for .csv files modified today.
5. If the file ever touched iCloud Drive, Dropbox or another sync folder, check their web interfaces for deleted-files areas and clear them.
6. Check your password manager's import history, if it keeps one, and clear any uploaded file record.

On modern Macs with SSDs and FileVault, secure-erase tools are largely unnecessary. FileVault encrypts the disk, so deleted data isn't readable without your login. If FileVault is off, turn it on. It's under System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Rotating the passwords that matter most

If the CSV sat in a risky place even briefly, change the passwords that guard money and identity. That's overkill for a file that existed for five minutes on an encrypted local disk. But if it was in a synced folder, emailed, or left overnight, take it seriously.

Prioritise in this order: your email accounts (they reset everything else), banks and payment services, your password manager's master password if you reuse anything, then work and cloud accounts. Doing this inside your new password manager is easy, since most can generate and save a new password in a few clicks.

This is also a good moment to clear out the junk. Skim the CSV for old logins on sites you no longer use, and delete those entries before you import. A smaller vault is a safer vault.

Troubleshooting when you export passwords from Arc browser

Most export failures come down to a handful of causes, and all of them are fixable. Here's what I'd check first.

The Export passwords button is missing or greyed out

Make sure you're on desktop Arc. The password export is a desktop feature. Check that you're in the right profile, and that you're signed into your Mac as an admin. If arc://password-manager/settings isn't loading, try arc://settings/passwords instead, and update Arc if an update is pending.

The file is empty or too short

If the CSV has only a header row, you're probably on a profile with no saved passwords. Switch spaces and try again. If you know passwords should be there, they may be stored in a different profile.

macOS won't accept your password

Use the login password for the Mac account you're currently signed into. If Touch ID fails, fall back to typing it. If you use a separate admin account, you may need that account's credentials.

The import into the new tool garbles characters

This is a text encoding issue, usually from opening and re-saving the CSV in Excel. Don't. Import the original file untouched. If you need to inspect it, use a plain text editor and don't save.

Duplicates after import

Most managers have a deduplicate or merge feature. Run it, but check a few entries first so you don't merge two accounts that happen to share a domain.

Passkeys didn't come across

Passkeys aren't part of a CSV export. The file contains username and password pairs, nothing else. If you've been using passkeys with Arc, you'll need to set them up again in your new password manager or browser, site by site. It's tedious. Do the important ones first.

What about two-factor codes, autofill data and credit cards?

The password CSV doesn't include two-factor codes, addresses or payment cards. If you stored any of those in Arc's autofill, they won't be in the file.

Credit cards in particular deserve a manual look. Open Arc's autofill settings, note which cards are saved, and re-enter them in your new setup. Don't try to copy them into a spreadsheet. Better to type them fresh into a password manager's card field, or just let your new browser offer to save them next time you check out.

For 2FA, if you used an authenticator app, nothing changes, since those live on your phone. If your codes were in a password manager, they move with that manager. If they were SMS codes, nothing to migrate.

A practical order of operations for leaving Arc

Do passwords first, because they're the item where a mistake costs the most, then handle the sidebar and shortcuts. Here's the sequence I'd follow if I were doing it today.

1. Export passwords from every Arc profile (this article).
2. Import them into a password manager and verify.
3. Delete the CSV, empty the Trash, and check for stray copies.
4. Export bookmarks, following our Arc bookmarks guide.
5. Pick your next browser. If you want something that behaves like Arc, compare Zen Browser vs Arc alongside Cra and Dia.
6. Import your sidebar structure. In Cra, that happens straight from Arc's files, with nothing to export first.
7. Re-set your shortcuts. Cra uses Arc's default keyboard shortcuts, and you can rebind them in Settings. Our Arc keyboard shortcuts list covers the defaults.

I'd do steps 1 to 3 even if you aren't sure where you're going next. Your passwords being safely in a manager gives you freedom to try Dia, Zen, Cra or anything else without pressure.

What Cra does and doesn't bring over

Cra keeps Arc's sidebar workflow but doesn't replace every Arc feature. Being straight about that matters, because you'll be deciding whether to trust it with your day.

What's there: spaces, pinned tabs and Today, with a colour and emoji per space; Favorites per space; the command bar on Command-T; auto-archive; Library; the tab switcher; Little Windows; Split View with up to four panes; Picture in Picture; Air Traffic Control; the Site Control Center; Live Folders for GitHub pull requests and reviews; a profile per space; Developer Mode with Chrome DevTools; and Chrome extensions from the Chrome Web Store. It also has built-in ad and tracker blocking.

What's not: Easels, Boosts, Peek and Notes aren't there yet. And Cra has no AI features and won't add Arc Max-style AI. If those missing pieces are central to how you use Arc, say so to yourself now, before you switch. If they're not, you'll probably feel at home within a day.

Quick reference: commands and paths

Your next ten minutes

Arc's shutdown won't be the last time a browser gets acquired, sunset or pivoted to AI, which is why your passwords belong in a manager and not in a browser.

Open arc://password-manager/settings right now and export passwords from Arc browser for one profile. Import the file into a password manager, verify five logins, delete the CSV and empty the Trash. Then repeat for every other profile, well ahead of 22 December 2026.

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Cra is a free, open-source macOS browser built as a one-to-one replacement for Arc, for people who want to keep the sidebar workflow after 22 December 2026. It imports your Arc spaces, pinned tabs, folders and archive straight from disk, with no account and no telemetry.