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Warning: Unresponsive Plugin; Shockwave flash may be busy, or it may have stopped responding.

  • 88 replies
  • 602 have this problem
  • 83 views
  • Last reply by John99

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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.

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.

Chosen solution

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


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.

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All Replies (20)

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Hello,

The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information. Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions, Open websites, and some Preferences.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

  1. Go to Firefox > Help > Troubleshooting Information.
  2. Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
  3. Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
  4. Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.

Further information can be found in the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Thank you.

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Just refresh the page. That usually happens here when Flash freezes or crashes.

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I've tried all of that, no luck.

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Is your Flash plugin up-to-date, just in case? Go to Addons -> Plugins -> and then check for updates.

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Yes I have checked for updates, I have disabled/uninstalled old version, I have done a full reset, I have done a full reinstall, I have checked my other plug ins and none of it has worked.

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Same problem here. I've done everything that is suggested above, and nothing works. As soon as I launch firefox the next time I get the unresponsive shockwave plugin error message. Just started maybe a week or so ago. Would be great if there were a real solution posted.

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I found this, haven't tried it yet, but it's worth a try: http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/adobe-flash-plugin-has-crashed

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I too have been having the same problem repeatedly for 4 days despite following all suggestions her - I'm getting nowhere!

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Ive been using Firefox for almost 7 years, But this error is enough for me to quit Firefox for good. The majority of everything I do on the internet involve the flashplayer some way or another. So I literally can't do anything. Every 5 seconds this dumb error keeps popping up, again and again. I bring out my task manager, directly end flashplayer, it crashes ofcourse, refresh, and the error pops up withing seconds once again. I've done everything these recommended "solutions" have said to do. All it did was waste my time, because that error still continues to pop up. I was at my mother's house the other day, and I used her computer. I'd hate to say it, But I was using Internet Explorer, and the internet ran smoothly. Not encountered any flashplayer problem. At the moment, I'm switching over to Internet Explorer. I want to use the internet. Not sit here, and fart around with a faulty web browser.

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This is getting crazy but I can't even log into Yahoo! without it freezing and then getting the "Shockwave Flash may be busy..." error. I finally gave up and started using Google Chrome. Haven't had any problems in Chrome.

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I'm having the same issue for about a week. I downloaded the newest Shockwave player, as it prompted me and since then, the flash player doesn't want to leave the games I play, runs very high (my fan is constantly going) and freezes up, then tells me that the plug-in has stopped working. It's become irritating already! Any fixes available for this?? A patch maybe? ...and I really don't want to reset Firefox again. :(

Modified by chreeees

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Was having the same issue. Am no expert but I checked plugins and there were 2 for Shockwave...Flash 11.7.700.169 and for Director 12.0.2.122. I disabled the Director one and closed/started Firefox. I have also rebooted and started Firefox again trying to recreate the problem but so far the issue seems to have gone away :)

Bad news...A few days later I have started to get the unresponsive Plugin again!

Modified by Scotster

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I was having this problem as well especially when playing facebook games. I thought I was going to pull my hair out! Finally decided to do something about it. I went to Add-ons under the orange Firefox tab at the top left. Under that tab I went to plugins and found out that java needed to be updated. Updated java, then went to control panel to uninstall older versions of java. It was really easy and quick. Java prompted me to check that everything was running properly and so far so good. Hope this helps! Good Luck!

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I'm having the same problem, same warning while watching Youtube videos. It started 2 days ago & it's become more frequent. The warning appears & everything on Firefox freezes for a few minutes. Soooo annoying! I checked my plugins..Shockware Flash is up to date so what's the problem? I removed the old versions & installed new about a week ago. I'm having problems using Auctiva on firefox too. I had to use IE to upload pictures to my Auctiva listings. I'm about ready to completely dump Firefox until I start reading praises about it's system working correctly.

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I have the same problem, ever since the 6th of May my browser will freeze then after about 15 seconds the warning window shows up saying that flash has become unresponsive. I've tried reinstalled an older version and it didn't work. I can play youtube in chrome but there isn't any sound. I'm getting really frustrated since now my computer is completely glitching out on me. It takes forever to shut down and now I've gotten the blue screen coming at me as well.

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I removed the installed version of Flash using the Adobe tool and then re-installed the latest version... several times. It makes no difference. I 'reset' Firefox and also removed and re-installed it. My best solution is to use Chrome.

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Just a head's up for anyone thinking of dumping FF in favour of Chrome:

Don't bother - I've just dumped Chrome for FF because of this same problem with Shockwave...

Fingers crossed they just get it sorted.

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Really!? I have been a long-time user of FF. Typically, when I start having problems with something like this, I do a search and immediately find a solution to the problem. Unfortunately, this time I find myself reading recent posts with not real solution having been discovered. And I wonder...why not? It wasn't "broke" before. What has happened to create an apparent recent incompatibility that is aggravating the "living daylights" out of loyal users, and yet it hasn't been resolved to date? Isn't there an obvious vested interest in making browser-loyal people happy?

All we're asking is that, whatever the cause...whether it's shockwave, FF, or both, please get to the meeting of the minds and resolve the problem so we can continue with your well-earned loyalty. Seriously, we don't want to jump ship! We love your genious! And, despite my rant, we're still grateful. But as with all of us, we want to get on with the business of the day.

Thanks!

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hahaha...actually, I meant "genius."

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