Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems

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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, see the article Install the Flash plugin to view videos, animations and games or follow the instructions in the Updating Flash section below to install the Flash plugin.

Updating Flash

The Flash plugin automatically updates itself by default. If Mozilla's Plugin Check page says that Flash is outdated and you don't want to wait for the automatic update, you can update Flash manually by downloading and installing the latest version from Adobe.

To check if your installation of Flash is up to date, visit Mozilla's Plugin Check page. If it says that Flash is outdated, you can update Flash by downloading and installing the latest version from Adobe.

  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

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

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.

Troubleshooting

Flash plugin not working

If Adobe's Test Page does not show that Flash is working even though you have installed the latest version, your Flash plugin may be disabled. To make sure that Flash is enabled,

  1. Click the menu button Fx89menuButton, click Add-ons and themes and select Plugins.

If the Flash plugin is disabled, click Enable.

If the Flash plugin is disabled, select Always Activate in its drop-down menu.

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.

Unresponsive plugin warning

Firefox will show you a warning dialog if the Flash plugin is taking longer then expected:

warning-unresponsive-plugin

See the article Warning Unresponsive plugin - What it means and how to fix it for solutions and workarounds.

Playing Flash videos makes Firefox hang

If Firefox stops responding or if the Flash plugin hangs or stops working when playing Flash videos or games, try these solutions:

  • You can disable Flash protected mode with the next instructions:
  1. Type about:config in the address bar and press EnterReturn.
    A warning page may appear. Click Accept the Risk and Continue to go to the about:config page.
  2. Type dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode in the Search field.
  3. Double click on it and toggle to True.
  4. Exit the about:config page.
  5. Restart the browser.
To re-enable Flash Protected Mode, reset the preference back to the default "false" value.
  • Disable hardware acceleration in Flash:
    1. Go to this Adobe Flash Player Help page.
    2. Right-clickHold down the control key while you click on the Flash Player logo on that page, then click on 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)