How to uninstall Arc on Mac

Arc Sync carries your Spaces, folders and tabs, but not everything else. According to Arc's help center, browsing history, passwords saved in Arc's password manager, extensions, Favorites and profiles do not sync, and on this Mac they live only in the profile folder this guide deals with. Move them somewhere else before you remove Arc. These steps cover the download from arc.net and the Homebrew cask arc; the recorded test used the download from arc.net.

Save what Arc Sync does not carry

  1. Turn on Arc Sync if you want your sidebar back on another device: open Arc › Settings (Command-Comma), find the Sync section and click Turn On. Arc Sync
  2. Check your saved passwords: in Arc › Settings go to Profiles, pick each profile, and click Password to open the password list for that profile. Move any you still need into another password manager, because Arc Sync will not bring them back. Find saved passwords in Arc
  3. Note the extensions you use and anything in your history you want to keep. Neither syncs.

Quit Arc and remove the app

Quit Arc with Arc › Quit Arc; closing the window leaves it running. Then move Arc from Applications to the Trash.

In the recorded test, Arc was still registered as a login item after the app had gone, pointing at the copy in the Trash. Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions and turn off any Arc entry you still see there.

Where Arc keeps its data

These are the paths in the Homebrew cask's zap list. Open each with Shift + Command + G in Finder; not every Mac has every entry.

Location What it holds What to do
~/Library/Application Support/Arc Your profiles: sidebar data, passwords, history, extensions Keep it until the steps above are done; this is the folder you cannot get back from Arc Sync
~/Library/Caches/Arc, ~/Library/Caches/company.thebrowser.Browser, ~/Library/Caches/CloudKit/company.thebrowser.Browser Caches Safe to remove after Arc has quit
~/Library/HTTPStorages/company.thebrowser.Browser and ~/Library/HTTPStorages/company.thebrowser.Browser.binarycookies Network storage and cookies for Arc itself Safe to remove with the app
~/Library/WebKit/company.thebrowser.Browser Embedded web data Safe to remove with the app
~/Library/Preferences/company.thebrowser.Browser.plist App preferences Remove for a clean start
~/Library/Saved Application State/company.thebrowser.Browser.savedState Window state Safe to remove

If you only want disk space back and plan to keep using Arc, see Free Up Chrome and Safari Storage on Mac Safely; Arc is built on Chromium and its caches work the same way.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands in Terminal after the app is in the Trash:

pgrep -ilf "Arc.app"
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Arc"
  • No output from pgrep means Arc is not running. A listed process means a copy is still open; quit it before you touch the profile folder.
  • ls printing the path means your profile is still on this Mac, which is what you want if you kept it. "No such file or directory" means the folder is gone, along with any passwords and history that were not moved elsewhere.

If you installed it with Homebrew

Arc is a browser, so Mole removes a Homebrew install with brew uninstall --cask arc and never adds --zap, whatever you tick in its review list. Your profile is not deleted through Homebrew by Mole.

Running zap yourself is different. brew uninstall --cask --zap arc moves every path in the table above to the Trash, ~/Library/Application Support/Arc included, so your passwords, history and extensions go with it. Save them first, or leave --zap out:

brew uninstall --cask arc

Homebrew Arc cask

Account

Removing the app does not delete your Arc account or the Spaces, folders and tabs stored by Arc Sync. Sign in again on another Mac and turn Sync on to get them back. If you reset your Arc password and no longer have a synced device, Arc's help says you may need your Recovery Card to reach that sync data.

What Mole lists

For Arc downloaded from arc.net:

  • ~/Library/Application Support/Arc is listed as browser personal data, labelled sensitive when it finds extension or key folders inside. It is never selected by default or by select-all. You can tick it on its own; Mole asks you to confirm and moves it to the Trash, where it stays recoverable until you empty the Trash.
  • ~/Library/HTTPStorages/company.thebrowser.Browser and Arc's other web-data folders are listed as unverified browser data and kept, with no checkbox.
  • ~/Library/Caches/Arc, and the caches, preferences and saved window state filed under company.thebrowser.Browser, are selected by default.
  • Login items are not edited; turn them off in System Settings.

What this test covered

Arc was downloaded from arc.net and uninstalled with a development build of Mole on September 17, 2026. ~/Library/Caches/Arc, the bundle cache and the preferences were removed. ~/Library/Application Support/Arc, about 117 MB, stayed on disk as browser personal data; that build did not offer it for deletion. Arc's login item was still listed afterwards, pointing at the app in the Trash. Arc was not signed in, so Arc Sync and saved passwords were not tested, and the Homebrew cask was not uninstalled in this test.

On September 26, 2026, Arc was installed again from arc.net, opened once, and uninstalled with a development build of Mole with every selectable row ticked. Status showed one Arc row of 14 processes at about 470 MB. Seven items went to the Trash; ~/Library/HTTPStorages/company.thebrowser.Browser and its .binarycookies file were listed as browser personal data, unticked, and stayed on disk as designed.