Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems

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  • Revision id: 46906
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  • Creator: AliceWyman
  • Comment: Flash help page no longer has a box that lists your Flash player version
  • Reviewed: Yes
  • Reviewed:
  • Reviewed by: ideato
  • Is approved? Yes
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  • Ready for localization: Yes
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  • Readied for localization by: ideato
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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.

Note: The Firefox Software Update feature does not update installed plugins. See the Adobe Security bulletins and advisories page for information about security and stability issues affecting Adobe Flash Player and other Adobe products.

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.

  1. Go to Adobe's Flash Player download page 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.
  2. When the download has finished, close Firefox. Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Quit.
  3. Open the Flash installer file you downloaded and follow the instructions.
Note: If you are having problems with the Flash installer from Adobe's download page, you can use this Flash Player installer link to directly download the full installer.
  1. Go to Adobe's Flash Player download page and download the Flash installer.
  2. Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Quit.
  3. Open the file you downloaded (i.e. install_flash_player_osx_intel.dmg).
  4. In the Finder, open the Install Adobe Flash Player.app to run the installer, then follow the installer's instructions.
  1. Go to Adobe's Flash Player download page.
  2. When prompted, save the file (i.e. install_flash_player_"version"_linux."processor".tar.gz).
  3. Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Quit.
  4. Open a Terminal window (in Gnome, click on the Applications menu, select Accessories, and then select Terminal.)
  5. In the Terminal window, change to the directory where you saved the file you downloaded (e.g. cd /home/user/Downloads).
  6. Extract libflashplayer.so from the file you downloaded with the command tar -zxvf install_flash_player_"version"_linux."processor".tar.gz.
  7. 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.

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Uninstalling Flash

Note: Running Adobe's uninstaller will remove Flash from all browsers where it is not built-in, including Internet Explorer. You will be prompted to reinstall Flash when you visit a page that requires it, such as Adobe's Test Page.

For instructions on uninstalling Flash, see Uninstall Flash Player - WindowsUninstall Flash Player - Mac OS at Adobe.com.

Troubleshooting

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.

Playing Flash videos makes Firefox hang

warning-unresponsive-plugin

If you see a warning that Shockwave Flash has stopped responding, try these solutions:

If Firefox stops responding when playing Flash videos or games, try these solutions:

If Firefox stops responding when playing Flash videos or games, try these solutions:

  • Pause or stop Flash in other tabs. You may need to close those tabs.
  • Update Flash. See the Updating Flash section above for instructions.
  • Update your graphics drivers. See Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL for details.
  • Disable HW acceleration in Flash:
    1. Go to this Flash help page on adobe.com.
    2. Right-click on the Flash Player animation then click Settings… in the context menu.Hold down the Ctrl key while you click on the Flash Player animation and then click Settings… in the context menu. The Adobe Flash Player Settings screen will open.
    3. Click on the icon at the bottom-left of the Adobe Flash Player Settings window to open the Display panel.
    4. Remove the check mark from Enable hardware acceleration.

      The image "fpSettings1.PNG" does not exist.
    5. Click Close to close the Adobe Flash Player Settings Window.
    6. Restart Firefox.

Cannot view full screen Flash videos

See Flash videos won't play full screen.

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 (for instance, at Mozilla's Plugin Check) even after installing the latest Flash version, uninstall and reinstall Flash.

Flash doesn't load video

If Flash videos or games may appear, black, white or grey and never play, see Flash 11.3 doesn't load video in Firefox.

Flash works in Internet Explorer or Chrome but not in Firefox

There are three different types of Flash Players: an ActiveX version for Internet Explorer, a Chrome version built-in the browser and a plugin version for Firefox and some 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)