The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed
The message The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed is shown when the Flash plugin stops working unexpectedly. Simply reload the page to restart the plugin and show the video (or game, animation, etc.) again.
On Windows and Linux, Firefox (version 3.6.44 and later) runs plugins like Flash in a separate process (see What is plugin-container). This is done to prevent Firefox from crashing when a plugin stops working. This article covers what you can do to avoid Flash plugin crashes.
Table of Contents
Update Flash
The latest version of the Flash plugin should perform better and crash less often. To check if Flash is up to date, visit Mozilla's Plugin Check page. If it says that Flash needs to be updated, install the latest version manually using the steps below.
- Go to the Flash Player download page at Adobe.com and download the Flash installer. Caution: Adobe's download page may include a checkbox for optional software (such as Google Chrome or McAfee Security Scan) that is selected by default. If you do not clear the checkbox before downloading, that software will be installed on your computer when you open the Flash installer.
- When the download has finished, close Firefox. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the button ( menu in Windows XP) and then click On the menu bar, click on the menu and select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select On the menu bar, click on the menu and select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select .
- Open the Flash installer file you downloaded and follow the instructions.
- Go to the Flash Player download page at Adobe.com and download the Flash installer.Note: The latest Flash player no longer supports PPC Macs. Instead, use Flash 10.1.102.64 which can be found in this archive
- At the top of the Firefox window, click on the button ( menu in Windows XP) and then click On the menu bar, click on the menu and select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select On the menu bar, click on the menu and select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select .
- Open the file you downloaded (e.g install_flash_player_osx_intel.dmg or flashplayer10_1r102_64_ub_mac.dmg).
- In the Finder, open the Install Adobe Flash Player.app to run the installer, then follow the installer's instructions.
- Go to the Flash Player download page at Adobe.com and download the Flash installer.
- At the top of the Firefox window, click on the button ( menu in Windows XP) and then click On the menu bar, click on the menu and select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select On the menu bar, click on the menu and select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select .
- Open the file you downloaded (i.e. install_flash_player_osx_intel.dmg).
- In the Finder, open the Install Adobe Flash Player.app to run the installer, then follow the installer's instructions.
- Go to the Flash Player download page at Adobe.com.
- When prompted, save the file (i.e. install_flash_player_"version"_linux."processor".tar.gz).
- At the top of the Firefox window, click on the button ( menu in Windows XP) and then click On the menu bar, click on the menu and select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select On the menu bar, click on the menu and select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select .
- Open a Terminal window (in Gnome, click on the menu, select , and then select .)
- In the Terminal window, change to the directory where you saved the file you downloaded (e.g. cd /home/user/Downloads).
- Extract libflashplayer.so from the file you downloaded with the command tar -zxvf install_flash_player_"version"_linux."processor".tar.gz.
- As the super user, copy the extracted file, libflashplayer.so, to your Firefox installation directory's plugins sub-directory. For example, if Firefox is installed in /usr/lib/mozilla, use the command sudo cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins and then enter your super user password when prompted.
For more help, see Managing the Flash plugin.
Update Firefox
The newest version of Firefox includes all of the latest stability and security fixes. Making sure it's up to date will help keep your computer secure and running great.
- At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click on the menu, go over to the menu and select menu, and select
For Windows XP: At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and select
- The About Mozilla Firefox window will open and Firefox will begin checking for updates. If updates are available, they will begin downloading automatically. If Firefox is up to date, just close the About Mozilla Firefox window.
- When the updates are downloaded and ready to be installed, click and Firefox will be restarted and the updates will be installed.
- The Software Update window will open. If updates are available, click to begin the process. If no updates are available, click to close the window.
- When the install process is complete, you must restart Firefox. To close Firefox and re-open it, click .
For more help with this, see Updating Firefox.

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