Moving From Chrome Application To the Desktop Client

The Chrome application is deprecated, and of Google's decision to remove support for apps, the application will soon be removed from Chrome.

Step 1: Install the desktop client.

Go to https://github.com/advanced-rest-client/arc-electron/releases to install the latest version of Advanced REST Client if you haven't already.

Step 2: Export data from the Chrome application.

Open the Chrome application. You can recognize it by a green banner in the left-bottom corner saying "Install new ARC with new features!"

In the top-right application menu, select Import and export data.

ARC Chrome Application data export

Click on the "Prepare data" button to create the export object. Depending on the amount of data it may take a minute or two.

Export configuration options

On the next screen choose the "Download file" tile.

Note, do not export to Google Drive as the desktop client doesn't have access to the data created by the Chrome application.

Export destination options

This opens a dialog to save the file on disk. Select any location to store the file. We will use this file later to import it into the desktop client.

Step 3: Import data into the desktop client.

Once the data export from the Chrome application is ready, import it to the desktop client.

Open Advanced REST Client desktop application.

At this point, your system tells you there are two Advanced REST Client applications installed: Chrome application and desktop client. The desktop client has a different application icon.

Select File > Import data from the application system menu.

Import menu option in Advanced REST Client

In the import screen, choose "Open from file" option and point to the file saved in the previous step. After the data are processed the import inspector screen is rendered.

The inspector screen contains a list of all data about to be imported to the application.

Import data inspector

You can ignore some data if you wish. When finished press the "Import data" button at the bottom of the screen. The "Data are now saved in the datastore" message should appear. The data are now moved to the desktop client.

Step 4: Uninstall the Chrome application.

Don't get confused by having two applications installed in your system. Uninstall the Chrome application using Chrome options. Open the chrome://apps/ page and find the application in the list of applications. Right-click on the application icon and choose the "Remove from Chrome..." option.

Removing ARC from Chrome

That's it. You have successfully migrated from Chrome application to the desktop client.