For years now, the Chrome browser has reported that it was up to date, even when there was an old copy of the Flash Player embedded in the browser. I mention this now, because Adobe released a new.

The Adobe Flash Player browser plugin lets you view video and animated content in Firefox. This article has information about testing, installing, updating, uninstalling and troubleshooting the Adobe Flash plugin.
Table of Contents
- 4Troubleshooting
Visit Adobe's Flash Player Help page to see if the Flash plugin is installed and working properly. If it tells you that Flash is not installed, see the next section on how to install the latest Flash plugin.
The Flash plugin automatically updates itself by default. If Adobe's Flash Player Help 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 Adobe's Flash Player Help page. If it says that Flash is outdated, you can update Flash by downloading and installing the latest version from Adobe.
- 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.
- When the download has finished, close Firefox.
Click the Firefox menu , then click Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen, then click Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu , then click Quit.
- Open the Flash installer file you downloaded and follow the instructions.
- Go to Adobe's Flash Player download page and download the Flash installer.
Click the Firefox menu , then click Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen, then click Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu , then click Quit.
- Open the file you downloaded (i.e. install_flash_player_osx_intel.dmg).
- In the Finder, open the Install Adobe Flash Player.app to run the installer, then follow the installer's instructions.
- Go to Adobe's Flash Player download page.
- When prompted, save the file (i.e. install_flash_player_'version'_linux.'processor'.tar.gz).
Click the Firefox menu , then click Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen, then click Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu , then click Quit.
- Open a Terminal window (in Gnome, click on the Applications menu, select Accessories, and then select Terminal.)
- In the Terminal window, change to the directory where you saved the file you downloaded (e.g. cd /home/user/Downloads).
- Extract libflashplayer.so from the file you downloaded with the command tar -zxvf install_flash_player_'version'_linux.'processor'.tar.gz.
- 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.
For instructions on uninstalling Flash, see Adobe's help page, Uninstall Flash Player - WindowsUninstall Flash Player - Mac OS.
Flash plugin not working
If Adobe's Flash Player Help page does not show that Flash is working even though you have installed the latest version, your Flash plugin may be disabled in the Add-ons Manager. To make sure that Flash is enabled,
- Click the menu button , click Add-ons and select Plugins.
If Flash is disabled, select Ask to Activate in its drop-down menu.
Flash plugin not working on certain websites
Firefox can block the Flash plugin on certain websites, if using it would cause security, speed or stability problems. For more information, see The Flash plugin is blocked on some sites by default.
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 into 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.
'Activate Adobe Flash' prompts
The Flash plugin is set to 'Ask to Activate' in the Add-ons manager by default. Click on the 'Activate Adobe Flash' message to allow the Flash content to load (if it doesn't, reload the page and try again). For more information, see Why do I have to click to activate plugins?.
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 and Adobe Flash protected mode in Firefox.
Unresponsive plugin warning
Firefox will show you a warning dialog if the Flash plugin is taking longer than expected:
See the article Warning Unresponsive plugin - What it means and how to fix it for solutions and workarounds.
Cannot view full screen Flash videos
See Flash videos won't play full screen.
Playing Flash videos makes Firefox hang
Latest Free Adobe Flash Player
If Firefox stops responding or if the Flash plugin hangs or stops working 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 Installing or updating Flash section above for instructions.
- Disable hardware acceleration in Flash settings. See Disable hardware acceleration in Flash for details.
- Update your graphics drivers. See Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL.
- Disable Flash protected mode. See Adobe Flash protected mode in Firefox.
Other Flash problems and solutions

- Your Flash issue could be caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration in Firefox. See Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems to narrow down the cause.
- Other solutions for general audio and video problems are listed in the Fix common audio and video issues article.
- If Flash content does not work, acts strangely, causes errors, or if you see a notice that you need to update Flash even after installing the latest Flash version, uninstall and reinstall Flash.
Based on information from Flash (mozillaZine KB)
Last updated: August 21, 2019
- An updated version of this article is available here.
- Watch the companion video: Unblock Flash in Google Chrome
Flashpocolypse. Sure it’s a silly name. But what *pocolypse isn’t? The beginning of the end of Flash has been circling overhead for some time, but the beast will not die. The latest release of Google Chrome certainly must weaken Flash’s resolve to live for much longer. In June, Google announced in a blog post that it introduced a beta feature in Chrome that would “intelligently pause content (like Flash animations) that aren’t central to the webpage.” That feature is no longer in beta. Flash content that Chrome deems non-central no longer plays by default.
The primary intention of killing Flash content in this manner was to help preserve laptop battery life. Its impact reaches farther than power consumption. Publishers dependent on Flash advertisements, for example, may no longer see impressions or corresponding revenue from Chrome visitor activity on their sites. Google’s own ad network, AdSense, does not deliver Flash ads, opting instead for HTML5 ads. As such, the impact on AdSense publishers will likely be minimal. Myriad recent security issues with Flash Player must also be a consideration when deciding to block Flash ads by default. No matter the reason, we will show you how to unblock Flash in Chrome so you aren’t deprived of any of the great Flash ad content you may still encounter.
Unblock Flash in Chrome
First, please note that this article was first published in 2015. An updated version of this article is available here.
Adobe Flash Player For Mac Update
To unblock the Flash Player plugin in Chrome, and show a recommended prompt to allow Flash content when you encounter it, click the Customize and control Google Chrome button. It is the icon with 3 vertical dots located to the right of the web address bar. Click Settings.
Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings page, and click the Advanced link. When the page expands to display advanced settings, scroll down to the Privacy and security section, and click Site Settings.
In Site Settings, scroll down to the Permissions section and click Flash.
To unblock Flash in Chrome, toggle the Block sites from running Flash button to Ask first.
The option exists to manage certain Flash behavior on specific sites. When you encounter Flash content, Chrome asks you to Click to enable Adobe Flash Player. When you click to enable Flash, click to Allow or Block Flash for that site.
Review and remove sites you allowed or blocked from Flash settings. Click the Trash icon to the right of a site to remove it from the Allow or Block list.
Thank you for visiting Tech Help Knowledgebase to learn how to unblock Flash in Chrome.
Image credit:Pixabay / Pexels
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