Moving from Arc to Zen: Separate Logins, History and Work Extensions
A pinned Gmail tab moved into a new Work space in Zen still opens your personal inbox. What actually keeps a work login separate?
Creating a Work space in Zen does not automatically turn an existing Gmail tab into your work mailbox. Spaces organize tabs; the login belongs to the tab's container or browser profile. Rebuilding an Arc workflow therefore starts with a practical choice: two accounts in one window, or two browser environments with their own extensions and history.
Arc says its macOS and Windows browsers will stop working on December 22, 2026. If Zen is your destination, the procedures below cover those two account arrangements using English labels from Zen 1.23.4b, current on October 26. Older instructions may use different names for the container selector. Arc's announcement, Zen release
Choose the separation your work needs
A container keeps a website's cookies and site data apart from other containers. Signing into Gmail inside Work does not sign you into Gmail inside Personal. Both containers still belong to the same browser profile, however, so their browsing history and installed extensions are shared. Switching spaces does not hide personal history from that profile's address bar. Zen's workspace documentation
| Your requirement | Configuration | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Organize project tabs | Separate spaces | Accounts, history and extensions can remain shared |
| Use two accounts on one site | A different container for each space | Separate sessions; shared history and extensions |
| Keep work extensions and personal history apart | Separate browser profiles | Separate data and extension sets in their respective windows |
For two email accounts with the same ad blocker, containers are a convenient fit. For a corporate password-manager extension that should exist only in your work browser environment, create another browser profile and install it there. Adding more containers does not create another extension list. Users have raised both needs in Zen's profile discussions, but those older comments should not be treated as instructions for today's menus. User requests for per-workspace profiles
Set up two mailboxes inside one window
In a normal Zen window, open Settings → General → Container Tabs. Enable containers and open their management controls. The default names include Work, Personal, Banking and Shopping. Keep Work and Personal for this example, or create your own. A space and a container with the same name are still separate objects until you associate them.
- Open the menu beside the current space name and choose Create Space. Name it Work and select the Work container in the creation form's Profile field.
- Create a Personal space and select the Personal container. Different icons or colors help you recognize the active space.
- For an existing space, right-click its name area and use Set Profile to choose the intended container. This option requires containers to be enabled in a normal window.
- Open a new Gmail tab in Work and sign into the work account. Open another new Gmail tab in Personal and sign into the personal account.
- Switch between the spaces and inspect the email address in Gmail's account menu. Reload both tabs: each should retain its own account.
The label Set Profile is a source of confusion. In this particular menu, it assigns the space's default container. The creation form's Profile field does the same thing. Neither creates an independent browser history or extension set. This is the feature older guides may call Set Default Container. Current interface labels, Space creation
Two spaces assigned to Work use the same Work cookie context. That is useful when several projects use one company account. If two clients require different accounts on the same service, create separate client containers and assign one to each space. The number of space names alone does not determine how many independent sessions you have.
Reopen existing tabs before pinning them
Suppose your personal Gmail is already open in a regular tab. Moving that tab into Work only changes where it appears. A regular tab uses No Container, and moving it does not replace that cookie context with Work. Ordinary pinned tabs behave the same way: pinning or moving them does not convert their login. Tab movement and container assignment
Right-click the existing tab, choose Open in New Container Tab, and select Work. The same address opens in a new Work tab. If Work has no Gmail session yet, sign into the company account. If it already has one, that session is used. Your original No Container tab keeps its personal login. Once the new tab displays the correct address, pin it where needed and close the old tab if it is no longer useful. Opening tabs in containers
Repeat the operation with Personal for the personal mailbox. A fresh login prompt is expected when that container has no session; it does not mean your previous account was lost. Opening the replacement first also lets you complete any company authentication without closing the working mailbox prematurely.
Under Settings → Tab Management → Workspaces, enable the option to switch to the workspace where a container is the default. In Zen 1.23.4b, automatic switching occurs only when exactly one space matches that container. If several project spaces share Work, Zen has no single destination to choose and does not make this switch. Existing tabs retain their login context.
If changing accounts in one space also changes the other, both tabs may be using the same cookie context: No Container, or Work. Reopen the personal tab in Personal and sign in there. Check the account address in each tab afterward to verify that the two sessions are separate.
Create a work browser profile for separate extensions
A full browser profile stores a separate set of user data, including history, bookmarks, settings and extensions. Use it when the corporate extension set should be absent from the personal browser environment. Opening another ordinary window of the same profile does not create that separation.
- Enter about:profiles in Zen's address bar. Identify the profile currently in use and keep it as your personal environment.
- Choose Create a New Profile. Continue through the wizard, enter a recognizable name such as Work-Zen, keep the default storage location, and finish.
- Find Work-Zen in the list and choose Launch profile in new browser. A window for that profile opens. Its own about:profiles page identifies which profile is in use.
- Sign into company websites in the work window and install the work extensions there. Manage the personal window's extension list separately.
- To return to personal browsing, select the existing personal window. If you closed it, open about:profiles and launch the personal profile from its entry.
- Use Set as default profile for the environment you want on normal startup. Creating a new profile can change the default, so set this explicitly after setup.
Zen's official profile guide documents this inherited Firefox route for creating and launching a profile. Mozilla's About Profiles instructions explain the wizard and launch controls. This procedure uses that page rather than assuming that Firefox's newer profile menu has identical behavior in Zen. Zen profile guide, About Profiles controls
A new work profile starts with its own data. Copying the whole personal profile into it can bring the personal cookies, history and extensions along, defeating the intended arrangement. For a clean work setup, sign into the required sites and install the required extensions individually. If both profiles later use the same synchronization account, enabled history or extension synchronization can also transfer those items between them. Choose synchronization settings to match the separation you want.
Check the outcome before moving the rest of your work
For the container arrangement, the useful test is two Gmail tabs showing different account addresses after reload. Shared address-bar history is expected. For the full-profile arrangement, open extension management in both windows: the company extension should be present in Work-Zen and absent from the personal profile. These checks test the actual behavior you chose, rather than relying on the word Profile in a menu.
Links and bookmarks brought from Arc do not establish the intended website sessions. Open each essential address in its new container or profile, sign into the right account, and then pin it. Doing that before rebuilding every tab group avoids turning an already signed-in personal mailbox into a misleadingly named work pin.
One other condition may affect how much of your browsing moves. Zen's FAQ currently says that Windows and macOS lack the Widevine licensing needed for DRM-protected playback. More profiles or containers do not change that. If a streaming service requires it, keep that service in a supported browser or its native app while using Zen for the work and personal web accounts you have configured. Zen's DRM FAQ