Warning: Unresponsive Plugin; Shockwave flash may be busy, or it may have stopped responding.
I've been using firefox for a really really long time, and I play quite a lot of facebook games. Yesterday morning, things were working perfectly fine, but later in the day, I suddenly started getting these shockwave errors. I can't recall downloading anything and I must have uninstalled and reinstalled the flash player at least 8 times. It's honestly starting to frustrate me. I love firefox, but if the browser refuses to work, I probably won't be using it for much longer.
Izabrano rješenje
This thread is now 5 pages and so excessively long. The comments possibly do not all relate to exactly the same problem.
(Just unlocking temporarily to comment this page at August 2013 has had about 156 thousand Views. It was opened in April so that is over 10 thousand hits a week)
At this point it is going to be impossible to propose a solution that everyone will agree on. I will lock this thread, marking this post as the solution and link to some of the post most likely to be helpful:
Potentially Useful posts
- The initial suggestion /questions/957423#answer-429894 consider use of Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings, please read the article before using that option. You will lose some information.
- Two of the highest voted posts /questions/957423#answer-429918 & /questions/957423#answer-432844
- Disabling Silverlight, several users report that as a solution e.g. /questions/957423?page=5#answer-453470 & /questions/957423?page=4#answer-448634
- Disabling Hardware accelertion in both FlashPlayer and Firefox /questions/957423?page=3#answer-442802
- note as a quick test Safe Mode disables Firefox Hardware Accelleration Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode & see Disable Hardware Acceleration & Adobe Article
- Uninstalling and re-installing FlashPlayer /questions/957423#answer-435489
- An OS update resolved this XP users problem /questions/957423?page=2#answer-437641
- Graphics driver updates fixed it in this post /questions/957423?page=2#answer-441894 (Also seeUpgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL )
- One of my explanatory posts with additional links /questions/957423?page=3#answer-444117
- A workaround involving changing the hang detector timing /questions/957423?page=3#answer-446306
- My suggestion about protectedmode- this is known to solve some Windows (Vista or later ) & Flashplayer problems /questions/957423?page=4#answer-448885
- a comment from a user with a FlashPlayer version prior to protected mode "workaround: Do NOT go to IE and allow it to install the latest flash"/questions/957423?page=4#answer-449044
I think really it would have been better to lock this thread earlier. Threads are best when they are definitely a single problem with solutions, rather than being about a symptom with many possible causes.
All Replies (20)
Same problem here. It is frustrating. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox. I've reset Firefox. When I go to check if my plu-ins need updating it states that Abode reader is vulnerable and needs updating. When I update it states that it is already installed . So I uninstall it & reinstall it and nothing improves. My You Tub videos take forever to start & always freeze midway through the video. I have never had problems with Firefox until recently.
The recommendation of globalpuffer works for me. I just uninstalled Adobe Flash player from the Windows Uninstall Programs option in control panel and then downloaded and installed the older version of Flash globalpuffer recommends. So far this seems to work perfectly. Thanks Globalpuffer....
Starling2k
Just a quick thank you to everyone for highlighting this, I note that the problem has existed for some months, I am still getting it now so can only assume that Firefox have no idea how to resolve the issue which makes web browsing frustrating, annoying and in some cases impossible.
A "Big Up" to the guy who mentioned Google Chrome - hadn't thought of that - time to uninstall Firefox and install Chrome - I just can't handle an inefficient browser any more
Not long after my last post Adobe came out with a flash player update. I always have the latest version. Since my Vista computer is temperamental about updating certain things I always manually uninstall and install the latest flash updates and I did the same with this one.
Just in case it helps, I'll also mention that I had updated my nVidia display driver just before the error messages. I needed to uninstall the driver and choose an earlier one because I was suspecting problems. Then I updated to the new flash version.
I have been reading other threads on this and I also tried disabling some add-ons. Java, RealNetworks, Silverlight, Shockwave for Director. I haven't tried turning them back on yet.
I have not had the unresponsive / busy plugin message in Firefox since. Knock on wood.
would be nice if mozilla would offer an update to fox the issue. they know its a issue but instead of looking into it moderators are spewing the same garbage that wont fix the problem. looks like i will be going back to chrome, congrats
FF has been my favorite browser for years, i like many of its features and ease of use, but this problem coupled with crappy moderators that arent even addressing the issue that apparently thousands of people have is complete bs. you basically just said im sorry we like open source software so were not even looking into the problem and dont plan on doing so. come out with a fix and delete every post from incompetent mods and i will come back to FF.
Please ask a new question, it gives us details.
I`ve had this problem for like a month or two, it occured while watching (or trying) sport livestreams, and guess what, tried to watch this page on Chrome, and it works just fine.
IT`S OBVIOUS THAT IS FIREFOX ISSUE/PROBLEM, SO FIX IT BIATCHES!
The bad part is i think it only happens on windows, since i threw vista in the trash for Lubuntu, i never see any issues, only with the gnome-shell.
I'm another one plagued with this problem. I just uninstalled Flash and reinstalled it, but nothing seems to have been improved.
Can this really be so hard to resolve?
Izmjenjeno
Try this. Go to tools,options,advanced select data choices and uncheck ALL boxes. It Improved the problem to about 98%. Some lag only when scrolling the page up or down on some videos in youtube but no freezing. Had freezing all the time before I did this. Hope this helps.
Maybe compatability issue between shockwave flash and silverlight. See other thread here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/953366
But removing or disabling Silverlight not an option if you use SkyGo to watch TV/fims etc as required
Just fixed this issue on my box Win 7 SP1 64 FF 22
I ran the flash uninstall, deleted the folder C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Flash Player, restarted my pc, and downloaded and installed the archive addition flashplayer_10_3r183_90_win.exe. FF began working fine again. IE was missing flash, so I let IE install the latest version. Both are now running fine for me.
Good luck,
littleccguy
Hi littleccguy,
did you try disabling protected mode first ?
Users of Windows >XP, having Flash Player problems sometimes find that works without them needing to downgrade the Flash Player version.
- there will be various suitable links relating to this one is
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Flash_Player_11.3_Protected_Mode_-_Windows
or Adobe's http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1018071#TemporaryWorkaround
Both of the above articles may be worth looking at; not only for the instruction on how to disable protected mode; but also for other troubleshooting information.
Littleccguy YOU ARE MY HERO. I tried everytthing else but this IS THE FIX. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.
And may I say THANK YOU AGAIN!
I just checked and I don't have Silverlight running. I suspect then that the culprit must be something else.
@john99 Not running XP, and I am not a big fan of running in unprotected mode.
Thanks
I just found someone else at my work with the same issue and system as me. My solution above worked for them as well.
I hope it helps others like it did foxy1492. ;-)
Let's change that from 'solution' to 'workaround'. This does not solve the root cause - whatever that may be. (cough, cough)
One other change to my workaround: Do NOT go to IE and allow it to install the latest flash - especially with the option to auto update. This will update FF after awhile, and you will be right back where you started.
Instead for IE, install using flashplayer_10_3r183_90_winax.exe from the same archive download.