Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems
The Adobe Flash Player browser plugin lets you view video and animated content in Firefox. This article has information about testing, updating, uninstalling and troubleshooting the Adobe Flash plugin.
- For instructions on how to install the Flash plugin for Firefox, see Install the Flash plugin to view videos, animations and games.
Table of Contents
- 1 Testing Flash
- 2 Updating Flash
- 3 Uninstalling Flash
- 4 Troubleshooting
- 4.1 Fixing issues with Flash 11.3 and above
- 4.2 Playing Flash videos makes Firefox hang
- 4.3 Cannot view full screen Flash videos
- 4.4 Flash does not work properly and/or will not update
- 4.5 The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed
- 4.6 Flash does not work in Firefox
- 4.7 Flash works in Internet Explorer but not in Firefox
Testing Flash
Visit Adobe's Test Page to see if the Flash plugin is installed and working properly. If it tells you that Flash is not installed, install Flash using the instructions at Install the Flash plugin to view videos, animations and games.
Updating Flash
To check if your installation of 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.
- 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 and then select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and then 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.
- At the top of the Firefox window, click on the button and then select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and then 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 and then select At the top of the Firefox window, click on the menu and then 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.
Uninstalling Flash
For instructions on uninstalling Flash, see Uninstall Flash Player - WindowsUninstall Flash Player - Mac OS at Adobe.com.
Troubleshooting
Fixing issues with Flash 11.3 and above
There are two issues specific to Flash 11.3 and above. See these articles for solutions:
Playing Flash videos makes Firefox hang
Flash hardware acceleration may cause this problem. To disable HW acceleration in Flash:
- Make sure you are using the latest version of Flash. To check your version, see Adobe's About page.
- Navigate to a page that shows a Flash video.
- Right-clickHold down the Ctrl key while you click on the video player and click in the context menu. The Adobe Flash Player Settings screen will open.
- Click on the icon at the bottom-left of the Adobe Flash Player Settings window to open the Display panel.
- Remove the check mark from Enable hardware acceleration.
- Click to close the Adobe Flash Player Settings Window.
Cannot view full screen Flash videos
See Flash video won't play full screen on YouTube, Facebook and other websites.
Flash does not work properly and/or will not update
If Flash content does not work, acts strangely, or causes errors, or if you see a notice that you need to update Flash (e.g., at Mozilla's Plugin Check) even after installing the latest Flash version, uninstall and reinstall Flash.
The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed
If you see this message instead of Flash content, see Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again.
Flash does not work in Firefox
On Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" and above, Firefox runs in 64-bit mode by default and requires at least Flash 10.1 for Flash to work. If you have an older version of Flash installed, you should update Flash to the latest version.
Flash works in Internet Explorer but not in Firefox
There are two different types of Flash Players: An ActiveX version for Internet Explorer and a plugin version for Firefox and other browsers. If you want Flash to work in Firefox you must install the plugin version, as explained above.
Based on information from Flash (mozillaZine KB)
Share this article: http://mzl.la/LFqi2J