Bring your tabs

Tern can bring your tabs, bookmarks, history and extensions over from the browser you use now, so your first day in Tern starts where you left off. Everything it reads stays on your Mac.

Where to start

The first step of the first run is Import. If you skipped it, or want to bring another browser over later, use any of these:

• The menu: File › Import from Another Browser…, or ⇧⌘I.
• The sidebar: the + at the end of the Spaces strip, then Import from Another Browser….
• Settings: General › Import › Import….

Tern lists the browsers it finds on your Mac: Arc, Google Chrome, Safari, Brave and Microsoft Edge.

Import step by step

1. Pick a browser.Choose the browser you use now. Each one shows what it holds, such as how many bookmarks.
2. Choose what to bring.Tick what you want: open tabs (Spaces, for Arc), bookmarks, history and extensions. Something the browser doesn't have is greyed out.
3. Bring it over.Choose Import in the first run, or Bring them over in the import window. Tern says what came across and anything it couldn't read.

What comes across

• Arc's Spaces arrive as Spaces, with their pinned tabs and folders. Tick Tabs that aren't pinned to bring those too.
• Open tabs arrive in a Space of their own. The browser has to be open for Tern to read them, and macOS asks whether Tern may control it. If you said no, allow it in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Automation.
• Bookmarks go into the open Space as one folder named after the browser, keeping its folders inside. In the import window you can choose A Space of their own instead. Each bookmark becomes a pinned tab that sleeps until you open it, and up to 1,000 come across from each browser.
• History joins Tern's history, so pages you visited show up as you type.
• Extensions are downloaded again from the Chrome Web Store, so you get the copy the store serves. They wait in the Extensions menu instead of filling the toolbar.

Sign-ins and passwords

Sign-ins don't come across. You sign in to each site again, once per Space, because each Space keeps its own sign-ins. Passwords stay in your Keychain or your password manager, and a password manager extension can fill them in Tern.

Tern can't use passkeys in this version, because macOS gives a browser passkeys only once Apple allows it. When a site asks for one, a note over the page says so; sign in with a password, a password manager's extension or a code instead.

If something is missing

If Tern couldn't read a browser's data, quit that browser and try again. If Tern didn't find a browser at all, check that it is in your Applications folder. You can import as often as you like, from more than one browser.

Next, set up the Spaces you brought over in Your first Space.