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Change Arc Browser Icon
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change-arc-icon.md

Change Arc Browser Icon

arc

A collection of commands that change the Arc Browser icon on macOS.

Commands

Theme Command
Candy Arc defaults write company.thebrowser.Browser currentAppIconName candy
Hologram defaults write company.thebrowser.Browser currentAppIconName hologram
Neon defaults write company.thebrowser.Browser currentAppIconName neon
Fluted Glass defaults write company.thebrowser.Browser currentAppIconName flutedGlass
Schoolbook defaults write company.thebrowser.Browser currentAppIconName schoolbook
Colorful defaults write company.thebrowser.Browser currentAppIconName colorful

Steps

  1. Copy one of the above commands
  2. Open Terminal.app
  3. Paste and run the command
  4. Open Settings, then click the Icon tab
  5. Click the new icon's radio button (it will already be selected, but clicking it will trigger the actual icon change) 1
  6. The icon should be updated!

Custom Icon

See @pv-g's comment.

Footnotes

  1. Thanks to @kotx for the tip to update without restarting Arc! ↩

@kotx
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kotx commented Mar 12, 2024 •
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You can also click on the radio button in Settings > Icon after running the defaults write command to set the icon without restarting Arc!

@bastiendmt
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You can also click on the radio button in Settings > Icon after running the defaults write command to set the icon without restarting Arc!

Nice trick that avoids quitting and relaunching the browser !

@edoedac0
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edoedac0 commented May 8, 2024

Is there a way to add custom icon?

@marcuskwan
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thank you!

@gabe565
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gabe565 commented May 10, 2024

You can also click on the radio button in Settings > Icon after running the defaults write command to set the icon without restarting Arc!

@kotx Thanks for the tip! I updated the instructions and mentioned you 🙂

@gabe565
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gabe565 commented May 10, 2024

Is there a way to add custom icon?

@djkewjrioesjfdwaoikdi Not that I've found. I've tried a few different methods and unfortunately Arc always changes it back when it gets restarted.

@cinestl
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cinestl commented May 23, 2024

Thanks a lot bro! <3

@lucioreyli
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Is there a way to add custom icon?

You can try use Pictogram App to customize app's icon.
It's useful because is free and the custom icon doesn't disappear after update the app.

@vicodinvic1
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Is there a way to add custom icon?

You can try use Pictogram App to customize app's icon. It's useful because is free and the custom icon doesn't disappear after update the app.

It doesn't work, I tried. The icon resets immediately once Arc launched

@pv-g
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pv-g commented Jun 6, 2024 •
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@djkewjrioesjfdwaoikdi @gabe565 @vicodinvic1, I also hate that Arc forces users with their predefined icons, not respecting how the macOS platform has been working for decades.

I found their icons are stored there:
/Applications/Arc.app/Contents/Resources/ARCClients_BaseAssets.bundle/Contents/Resources/Assets.car

With this excellent app https://github.com/NSAntoine/Samra, you can edit the Assets.car catalog, replacing one of their icon with yours.

A next step would be a script, like Replacicon or Pictogram do, to check whenever an update occurs to automatically re-update your icon...

@kvlq
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kvlq commented Jun 7, 2024 •
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These commands doesnt work for me on the latest ARC.

@enfantrichedeprime
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Thank you so much for this. Their 3 first icons (that can easily be "obtained") are horrible. I've spent probably an hour trying to chmod my way into getting Samra to work. These cmds are the only thing that works for me currently. Hugely appreciated.

@pv-g Are you really able to use Samra? Arc seems to turn off the the switch in "security and privacy" as soon as I try to make a modification.

@pv-g
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pv-g commented Jun 10, 2024

@enfantrichedeprime yes, Samra works great. You should use it when Arc is not running, and re-launch it afterwards.

@kvlq
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kvlq commented Jun 10, 2024

@enfantrichedeprime yes, Samra works great. You should use it when Arc is not running, and re-launch it afterwards.

I messed up the Assets.car file with Samra. Can you shortly describe the steps which should be done?

@harryfornasier
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@pv-g Are you really able to use Samra? Arc seems to turn off the the switch in "security and privacy" as soon as I try to make a modification.

I seem to be having the same issue. It worked for me until recently. Now every time I try to edit the icon for Arc with Samra something disables Samra's App Management access.

@prth1234
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can we add our own icon or iOS app icon?

@SneakerFreaker64
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Thank you !

@blakegearin
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blakegearin commented Aug 13, 2024 •
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To save anyone else the trouble of looking into tab icons... Arc has .TTF file containing Ionicons and curates a small subset for tab selection.

/Applications/Arc.app/Contents/Resources/ARCClients_Icons.bundle/Contents/Resources/ionicons.ttf

No need to extract these icons as the originals can be retrieved as .SVG files here: https://ionic.io/ionicons

@joe-bro-1
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@enfantrichedeprime @kvlq @harryfornasier you can copy the file at /Applications/Arc.app/Contents/Resources/ARCClients_BaseAssets.bundle/Contents/Resources/Assets.car to desktop change one of the icons via samra and put it back the issue your having is the security policy on mac that doesn't allow one app to mod another so if you move the file it works. also make sure to change the AppIcon[icon name] not AppIcon[icon name]Preview. and then use the instuctions above to use the icon which is now your custom one
image
image
image

@m4th3r0b0t
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Thanks a lot man!

@egorgam
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egorgam commented Sep 9, 2024

And if you want to change Dock icon too, do same operation with /Applications/Arc.app/Contents/PlugIns/DockTilePlugIn.plugin/Contents/Resources/Assets.car and next do killall Dock in terminal. Your icon will be persists when open and close browser app =)

@pv-g
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pv-g commented Sep 11, 2024

Perfect @egorgam 👌

Just still annoying to re-do everything at each app update...
I may write a script someday

@cinestl
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cinestl commented Sep 11, 2024

Tbh, Im pretty much fine with what Arc gives, just accessible) I absolutely love Glass one!

@johan-stenqvist
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First of all thank you for the effort put into this article!

But thinking out loud here, would there be a reason why not adding all icons into the availableAppIconNames list would work? I am not very well traveled when it comes to writing to the defaults, but I can clearly see my available icons running:
defaults read company.thebrowser.Browser availableAppIconNames

Maybe one of you guys who know what they are doing would know how if this is possible?
Thank you in advance!

@prth1234
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prth1234 commented Dec 6, 2024

Thanks, it works perfectly, Is there a way we can use our own icon????

@prth1234
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prth1234 commented Feb 2, 2025

Is there a way to add custom icon?

i dont think so

@joe-bro-1
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@prth1234 my reply higher up should do it; if theres a problem tell me.

@TheEighthDwarf
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TheEighthDwarf commented Oct 4, 2025 •
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Honestly amazing thread, thank you to everyone here, it works perfectly.

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