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Why does mozilla keep asking me to install Adobe Flash when I already have the latest version installed.

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  • 52 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Jgrossman

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Why does Mozilla Firefox keep asking me to install Adobe Flash when I already have the latest version installed?

Why does Mozilla Firefox keep asking me to install Adobe Flash when I already have the latest version installed?

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Thanks for responding. I just went to check it and it now looks like it was resolved. the browser just must have needed a restart or something.

It looks all good now except for Java, which was addressed in the thread on Java, which just has to wait for firefox 29 and java 8 to "jive" ;)

anyway it looks like this now

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All Replies (13)

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you should be aware of some spammers, they use some ads that looks the same as browser notifications. you can install "adblock plus" addon to get rid of annoying ads, or just you can ignore them.

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Firefox uses a different (NPAPI) Flash plugin than IE (ActiveX).

Your system details list doesn't show that the Shockwave Flash plugin for Firefox is installed and enabled.

You can find the latest Flash player versions for Firefox on this page.

You can verify on the Adobe Flash Players Test Page that the Flash plugin is working and which version you have.

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I have flashplayer plugin version 11.9.900.152 installed on my computer which is the latest version. I don't know why Firefox keeps insisting that I install the plugin. I keep trying to follow their instructions and going thru the installation process, but it doesn't resolve the issue. On two occasions, when I just tried to install the plugin, I get the message that the installation failed. In the list of plugins in Mozilla, flashplayer does not appear. I appreciate your advice, but I am still getting nowhere. Many thanks for your consideration.

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Hi tgennett, could you step through a few different checks:

(1) Add-ons page

Check to make sure Shockwave Flash is not set to "Never Activate" because that disables the plugin and hides it from websites.

Either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+a
  • orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Plugins. Check the grayed out area at the bottom.

Success?

If there's no sign of it on the Add-ons page...

(2) Confirm that Firefox is scanning the registry for plugins

Firefox finds the Flash plugin from a registry entry. Some users have the scanning turned off for some reason. Here's how to check and fix that:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the filter box, type or paste scan and pause while the list is filtered

(3) If plugin.scan.plid.all is not set to its default value of true, double-click it to toggle it back to the default.

If you changed this setting, exit and restart Firefox to trigger another scan.

If you check the Add-ons page again, success?

If Firefox is set to scan but still does not find Flash and list Shockwave Flash on the Add-ons page...

(3) Remove Firefox's plugin registry file

Sometimes the pluginreg.dat file becomes corrupted. You can remove it and have Firefox re-scan for plugins. As a side effect, any plugins you have disabled on the Add-ons page probably will be re-enabled, so you'll need to go back to that page one more time.

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using

Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit (either Firefox button > Exit or File menu > Exit)

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename pluginreg.dat to something like pluginreg.old

Restart Firefox. (If you want to restore your previous non-private session, use History > Restore Previous Session.)

When you return to the Add-ons page, is Shockwave Flash 11.9 finally there?

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I tried all of your suggestions and I am still stymied. Mozilla absolutely refuses to let me download (add it to the list of plugins) the plugin and just indicates that it failed. I suspect that flash player, for some reason, is being blocked. I did see on the Blocked list entries showing flash player(malware) as being blocked but don't understand why Mozilla won't recognize the valid plugin when it rescans when restarted. Again, I appreciate the efforts and consideration from you folks, but I am totally flummoxed. I really want to use Mozilla Firefox, but don't know what to do next. Thanks again.

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Could you check the physical location where the plugin should be installed. I'm assuming it's Windows XP 32-bit, not the rare 64-bit version.

C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash

You want to confirm that you have this file in the folder:

NPSWF32_11_9_900_152.dll
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If the Flash plugin doesn't show on the about:addons page and on the about:plugins page then the plugin isn't installed properly.

Try to delete the pluginreg.dat file in the Firefox profile folder and let Firefox rebuild a new version.

If the Flash plugin for Firfox is in the correct location (C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash) then it is possible that the Flash player failed to create the registry key that Firefox uses to scan for plugins.

You can try uninstall the current Flash player version and (re)install the latest Flash version.

Note that this will remove all installed Flash players.

You can find the latest Flash player versions for Firefox on this page.

Run the Flash installer as Administrator: right-click > Run as > Administrator

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Many, many thanks to jscher2000 and cor-el for all of your consideration and effort in assisting me with my problem. I do now have flashplayer after spending a boatload of time going thru your suggested work thrus. I am not sure how and when the cure took place, I just know that Firefox now recognizes the flash plugin and is full functional. Again, I can't thank you enough for all of your assistance.

Ted Gennett

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I have this problem too. I followed the advice and went to the add-ons and saw that Abode for on is disabled. I clicked enable and nothing happened.

I see that for Java it says that it has to ask me to activate, for safety. But this does not mean that I dont have the updated version for my PC. I cant download Java 8 onto a windows 8 can I? at least windows 8 is not listed in the java 8 link as a possible platform.

So in that add-ons managment section, how i do get them to change, or work, so that firefox no longer tells me that they are out of date?

Or will firefox always tell me this and I just have to live with it? I have both set for automatic updates, so my PC is as up to date as it can be. Is the problem the PC?

Thanks

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Hi Jgrossman, I don't understand your description of what you see for "Shockwave Flash" (the name that appears in Firefox for the official Flash player plugin). Could you check again?

Open the Add-ons page using either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+a
  • orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Plugins. Look for "Shockwave Flash" and change to either "Always Activate" (fully Enabled) or "Ask to Activate".

With "Ask to Activate", when you visit a site that wants to use the Flash, you should see a notification icon in the address bar and one of the following: a link in a black rectangle in the page or an infobar sliding down between the toolbar area and the page.

Can you get that going?

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Chosen Solution

Thanks for responding. I just went to check it and it now looks like it was resolved. the browser just must have needed a restart or something.

It looks all good now except for Java, which was addressed in the thread on Java, which just has to wait for firefox 29 and java 8 to "jive" ;)

anyway it looks like this now

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Hi Jgrossman, actually, the "Deployment Toolkit" is a different issue than the regular Java plugin. I'm not sure why it is defaulted to Ask to Activate, but since hardly any sites use it, I think you won't find it too inconvenient.

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I have had to manually approve it twice recently, but that is no big deal.

I clicked approve. It worked once.

once it did not.

Firefox does not support folder upload with google drive. so i had to download google chrome in order to upload the folder to the drive. but again, it lets you choose which is nice.

not too surprising google drive is relatively new, and firefox does everything for it except folder upload. so, what can you do. google makes their technology work with their browser, and firefox has to catch up if they decide they want to.

that makes perfect sense.

thanks for your help. It has been much appreciated.