Flash keeps needing to be reinstalled in Firefox and Safari?

rsteve

Hi, I have an old iMac G5 with OSX Leopard.



I use Firefox and I notice that every few days when I go on a flash-enabled website with embedded video, it stops working - nothing appears where the video would normally be. If I right-click on it the Flash settings come up so I know Flash is still there, it just seems to stop working.



If I reinstall Flash it works fine again but only for 2 - 3 days before it happens again and I have to reinstall Flash again.



Any ideas anyone?



Thanks in advance as ever.



UPDATE:- forgot to say I tried it in Safari too same thing happened so doesn't seem to be browser-specific.

rokcet scientist

Quote:

Originally Posted by RSteve


Hi, I have an old iMac G5 with OSX Leopard.



I use Firefox and I notice that every few days when I go on a flash-enabled website with embedded video, it stops working - nothing appears where the video would normally be. If I right-click on it the Flash settings come up so I know Flash is still there, it just seems to stop working.



If I reinstall Flash it works fine again but only for 2 - 3 days before it happens again and I have to reinstall Flash again.



Any ideas anyone?



Thanks in advance as ever.



UPDATE:- forgot to say I tried it in Safari too same thing happened so doesn't seem to be browser-specific.

I had the same when I ran Leopard. It was even more frequent in Safari than in Firefox. I installed ClickToFlash for Safari, which prevents Flash from loading on webpages unless you specifically allow it by clicking on it. It doesn't actually solve the crashes and irregularities, but it does make them occur much less frequent, because Flash elements don't load and run automatically anymore, ergo much less frequent to cause problems as well.



I click on average on less than 1 in 10 Flash elements on webpages to see/run them (like Youtube vids etc.). Safari now crashes 'only' about once a day.



Let's hope Lion will finally deal with it.

rsteve

Hey Rokcet, thanks for that. It's nice to know it's not just me but a little disappointing to see it just seems to be an Apple-related problem.



I've seen lots of discussion about Flash, Blu-Ray etc. and it's the one side of the Apple experience I really am not enjoying. I like my Mac in many ways, but I don't like these issues especially when Macs are sold to switchers as "they just work". It seems a little more like "they just work, unless Steve Jobs falls out with Abode or doesn't like Blu-Ray, but hey he's Steve Jobs so he's always right.". LOL.



Ah well, happy with my old iMac for now, but I'm not as convinced as I was that its replacement will be a new iMac. For all the disadvantages of Windows, I still find I cannot access all the web content I want to fully on a Mac due to issues like this.



Thanks for the reply.

tallest skil

The problem isn't Apple's fault, as you seem to have put it. Adobe can write Flash well enough for Windows. Because they're capable of doing it, they should be doing it for OS X, but they're not. Since Click2Plugin, I've not had Safari crash once. And while the Flash 10.2 beta was nowhere near a good enough improvement for my liking, they'll keep making progress until no one uses Flash or they get it right.



I'm in the camp that believes in the former, but that's me. Adobe doesn't seem to care enough to get it right within the time needed to make a difference.

rsteve

I know what you mean Tallest, and you're almost certainly right - you certainly know far more about it than I do. However, whoever's fault it is, I'm posting from the point of view of an average, non-advanced computer user who buys a computer to do a certain job and is often told by Mac supporters to get a Mac because "they just work" and that I will be able to do anything I can on a Windows PC, but better. Not so in this case.



I love many things about my Mac and to an extent you always compromise when you buy any product, as all have their advantages and disadvantages. I understand that. However I use a lot of Flash-heavy websites and sure I'd prefer it if Adobe would fix Flash for Macs, sure I'd prefer it if those websites used a better alternative to Flash, but they haven't and the websites don't - that's the reality of the situation and I can't change it.



To be perfectly honest, to most people it doesn't matter if it's Adobe's fault, Apple's fault or the man on the moons fault - if buying a Mac means you can't do certain things, then in purely practical terms it doesn't matter.



Try to think of a product you use every day but don't really care about too much. For example, you are clearly very knowledgable and "into" computers and you like Macs, understandably. So you see things from Apple's point of view and you defend them.



However say if you're not really into cars and you just want something that works, and say (purely for example) a Toyota fan told you to get a Toyota. Then it was recalled with a brake fault. You say you're disappointed as you were told Toyota's were good quality - they tell you it's not Toyota's fault but the supplier of the part which failed.



They may well be right, but do you really care? The fact is you aren't that into cars and you just want a reliable car. Whether it's Toyota's fault or their suppliers fault, the fact is the product let you down so you might decide not to buy another one.



Like it or not, that's how the majority of people feel about computers. I like to use a lot of Flash-heavy websites, and my iMac isn't proving a very good choice for that particular task. It's not something that is ever mentioned to people when they're considering buying a Mac, so it can cause problems.



I genuinely love many things about my Mac and I'm over-simplyfying to a degree - and I totally understand why you like Macs and feel a certain loyalty to Apple, but in this specific case, it doesn't help much.



I really appreciate all the help I've had on this site so I don't mean to sound ungrateful, and I'm sticking with my iMac for now, but I have noticed a certain perspective on Apple websites like this that they'll help you if the problem can be solved, but if it can't, then you're told well websites shouldn't use Flash, Adobe should do something about it, Blu-Ray should have been developed differently so that it wouldn't annoy Steve Jobs. You only really find that out when you've bought the Mac - it's not always quite as simple as "it just works".

rokcet scientist

Quote:

Originally Posted by RSteve


I like to use a lot of Flash-heavy websites, and my iMac isn't proving a very good choice for that particular task. [...] I genuinely love many things about my Mac and I'm over-simplyfying to a degree

You are judging a six year old machine!



See if you would be equally (un)happy with a six year old XP machine...



Sorry, but imo you're comparing apples & pears, RSteve.

rsteve

I take your point rocket, but in fact I sometimes use an eight-year-old XP machine and it has no Flash problems, and unlike my six-year-old iMac, can install the latest version of any browser I choose. I did upgrade to Leopard, which isn't a six-year-old OS.



In any case, from your own reply, it appears that even a brand-new iMac with Snow Leopard would have exactly the same problem with Flash that my six-year-old Mac does but an eight-year-old XP machine doesn't?



I have found this site very helpful and I don't want seem ungrateful, and I don't want to offend anyone - least of all you, as you've been extremely helpful to me on this site.



I still love my old Mac, and I accept the limitations of an older machine, I'm just not sure I'll be buying another Mac when the time comes to replace this one. As you say, hopefully Lion will deal with it, we'll have to wait and see.

robm

Don't know if you've seen this - abit old now but still relevant - http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/



Might give you a better insight. Wheels within wheels ...

rokcet scientist

Quote:

Originally Posted by RSteve


I take your point rocket, but in fact I sometimes use an eight-year-old XP machine and it has no Flash problems, and unlike my six-year-old iMac, can install the latest version of any browser I choose. I did upgrade to Leopard, which isn't a six-year-old OS.



In any case, from your own reply, it appears that even a brand-new iMac with Snow Leopard would have exactly the same problem with Flash that my six-year-old Mac does but an eight-year-old XP machine doesn't?



I have found this site very helpful and I don't want seem ungrateful, and I don't want to offend anyone - least of all you, as you've been extremely helpful to me on this site.



I still love my old Mac, and I accept the limitations of an older machine, I'm just not sure I'll be buying another Mac when the time comes to replace this one. As you say, hopefully Lion will deal with it, we'll have to wait and see.

Whichever way your cookie crumbles, you've laid out perfectly why, when it's time to get new gear, a Mac would be your best choice, as you can run Windows on it as well as OSX in case you need or prefer to. The best of both worlds, on one machine.

That's not a viable option on a Windows machine.



In fact I remember a benchmark test in PC World and ComputerWorld that crowned the MacBook Pro as "the fastest Windows running laptop on the market"...

rsteve

Heh heh oh you're good Rokcet! Apple should have you on commission! I'm hope I haven't offended anyone cause I really do enjoy this forum and I do appreciate all the help I've had on here. It's just that I was a little upset over the whole Flash situation and I do feel sometimes some real Apple fanboys (and girls) will defend Apple no matter what, which I don't think is ultimately good for them or the Mac community as a whole. Still, plenty of Windows equivalents who do the same I guess.



Strangely enough since I posted this thread the Flash problem seems to have been reduced and I haven't needed to reinstall it for a while, so maybe someone heard me!



Anyway, I am keen to have a new Mac but still enjoying getting to know my old iMac so it'll be a while before I upgrade. I certainly won't until the next generation of iMac and/or Lion has come out anyway.



I also kinda like the smaller size of my iMac - the current ones are almost too big, and I kinda like the old white design too. Plus I prefer the non-glossy screen of my current iMac. But yeah I'm sure I'll upgrade to a new one when the next generation is out.