Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems

Revision Information
  • Revision id: 6937
  • Created:
  • Creator: AliceWyman
  • Comment: added last step for Mac, running Firefox 4 in 32-bit mode
  • Reviewed: Yes
  • Reviewed:
  • Reviewed by: AliceWyman
  • Is approved? Yes
  • Is current revision? No
  • Ready for localization: No
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Revision Content

The Adobe Flash Player browser plugin lets you view video and animated content in Firefox.

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 Flash Player download page at Adobe.com 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.exe), then follow the installer's instructions.
  1. Go to Flash Player download page at Adobe.com 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_ub.dmg).
  4. In the Finder, open the Adobe Flash Player.pkg to run the installer, then follow the installer's instructions.
  1. Go to Flash Player download page at Adobe.com.
  2. When prompted, save the file install_flash_player_10_linux.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 file you downloaded with the command tar -zxvf install_flash_player_10_linux.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.

    0a85171f1802a3b0d9f46ffb997ddc02-1260326970-447-1.png

Uninstalling Flash

For instructions on uninstalling Flash, see How to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player at Adobe.com.

Troubleshooting

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.

Flash-based video or audio does not play or stops after a few seconds

See Fix common audio and video issues.

Cannot view full screen Flash videos

See Flash videos won't play full screen.

Flash content shows as question mark

See Flash content shows as question mark.

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, see Flash does not work properly or will not update.

The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed

If you see this message instead of Flash content in Firefox 3.6.4 or above, see Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again.

Firefox crashes when viewing YouTube videos

If Firefox crashes when viewing YouTube videos or other Flash content in Firefox 3.6.3 or below, see Firefox crashes when viewing Youtube videos.

Pages that use the Flash plugin crash on Mac

See Pages that use the Flash plugin crash on Mac.

Flash does not work in Firefox 4

Starting in Firefox 4.0 Beta 7, Firefox will run as a 64-bit application on Mac OS 10.6 "Snow Leopard". This may cause Flash to stop working, even though it worked in Firefox 4 Beta 6 or below. As a workaround, you can run Firefox in 32-bit mode, as follows:

  1. From the menu bar, select Firefox and then select Quit Firefox
  2. Open the Applications folder in Finder and locate the Firefox application icon.
  3. Hold down the control key while you click the Firefox icon and select Get Info from the list of menu items.
  4. In the "Firefox Info" window, click the box in front of "Open in 32-bit mode" so that it is checked.
  5. Close the "Firefox Info" window and then restart Firefox 4.




Based on information from Flash (mozillaZine KB)