Flash issues on iMac
Hi Appleinsiders!
As much as I hate Flash, sometimes I do need it at work (some sites still heavily depend on it unfortunately). But since the last update all sites/movies that I try to watch online give me a "plugin error". I tried deleting Flash and reinstalling it, I tried using a beta Flash Player, I tried resetting all my browers, and I tried resetting my permissions via Disk Utility… all to no avail unfortunately.
Has anyone had this issue before and/or knows how to fix it? 
I'm running OS X 10.8.4, with all the latest updates to both Safari, Firefox, Flash Player etc.
Thanks in advance for the help!
Comments
Since the last update? You have 11.8?
Yup, I've got version 11.8.800.168 running here at the moment. And it really literally started when installing this update, although I couldn't solve the problem by installing the previous version though… I can't put my finger on the problem at all to be honest. Uninstalling and reinstalling the plugin in various ways (with the downloadable uninstaller, manually etc.) didn't make any difference at all as far as solving the problem goes.
I'm also running OSX 10.8.4 and Flash 11.8.800.168
On Safari and Firefox, everything works just fine for me.
The problem must be a conflict with something else you have installed on your system that's not on mine. Sorry I can't be of more help, just thought it could be useful to know that those versions ARE compatible.
Do you have ClickToFlash or any other plugin moderator installed?
Thanks for the replies guys
I didn't have any "anti-flash" plugin installed when I first tried all my flash-solving options. No clicktoflash, or any sort of Youtube-html5 plugins. Only after all else failed have I uninstalled Flash and installed a few Youtube-HTML-ifiers.
p.s.: before I installed those html5-plugins for Youtube, I did also try to uninstall áll Safari plugins (didn't have any for Firefox installed). No luck there either
It's really a strange problem… I can't find anything like this on Google, and I can't seem to solve it with whatever I try.
Do you have ClickToFlash or any other plugin moderator installed?
I do, and Flash still works (when I click on it) the way it's supposed to ...
I also tried turing C2F off, and Flash then still plays as expected.
Here's a screenshot of the problem I currently have. It's in Dutch, but the error in the black Flash field is pretty universally understandable I think
Does it give you an error message when you click on Pluginfout?
Jup, it sometimes (not always) tells me that:
- "you don't have the latest flash player installed"
- "you don't have ány flash player installed"
- … and then sometimes it simply doesn't respond to my feverish clicking.
How's that for weird and inconsistent responses?
Try moving all your internet plugins located in /Library/Internet Plugins and /Users/name/Library/Internet Plugins out of the folder, quit the browser and start it up again. Check Help menu > installed plugins to make sure the plugins are uninstalled. Then try visiting a Flash site like Youtube and see what error you get. Then move plugins back into the folder, quit the browser and check the sites again.
... Then move plugins back into the folder, quit the browser and check the sites again.
Or, better yet, re-install flash from the adobe .dmg (or however they deliver it) and get a brand new plug-in file installed. Otherwise, you're just putting the same corrupted (apparently) file back into use.
Thanks for the tip!
Guess what happened after I tried deleting áll plugins from those 2 folders (there were none in the user's Internet Plugins folder): absolutely nothing. After deleting all Safari Extensions and resetting Safari, deleting áll plugins from the 2 Internet Plugins folders, and re-downloading the Flash Player plugin from Adobe… it still didn't fix the problem.
I have never seen a problem like this before. Usually I can fix these things myself, but I can't put my head around this one… after doing all the above you'd think that Safari is as new as with a clean install of the entire system. But alas, no luck there either.
If you have any other suggestions, I'm all ears!
By the way, I tried making a new user account to see if the problem persists on that account as well… and it did. With a brand new account, untouched by whatever happened to my own account, it gave the exact same error.
When you click the help menu > installed plug-ins, are the plugins showing up as being enabled?
From what I can tell, yes.
This is what I see:
Are there any error log messages showing up in /Applications/Utilities/Console.app when you try to load a Flash movie? Also check out system prefs > Flash Player > Advanced to see the full Flash Player version number, it should be 11.8.800.168. Did all your other plugins work ok e.g Quicktime?
The version of Flash Player is the right one luckily, and all other plugins work as advertised
But I had no idea about that Console.app… I've never even used it! And I do see an error while loading a Youtube video for example. The main windows gives me these errors while loading a Youtube page:
I can also open one of these errors, and it gives me a list of jibberish (to me at least) long enough to fill the Yellow Pages. Does this mean anything to you by any chance?
Oh, here's a text file of the top (selected) error in the above image. Mind you, it's really a long one and I have no idea what it all means
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23967/flash_error_list.txt
It says the Flash plugin is crashing Webkit's plugin process. Someone else reported this to Adobe here:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/5632019
and the bug report is here, as yet unresolved:
https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3622404
They note that you can use Google Chrome, which uses a different Flash player to play Flash videos until it's resolved and you can use HTML5 as you mentioned earlier. One of the testers there couldn't reproduce the crash but a few people have reported the same problem and it's listed as very high priority.
Since Apple started blocking old versions of Flash, even downgrading the plugin isn't an option so if it breaks, you're stuck waiting for a fix from Adobe.
Oh happy days Marvin
(thanks for going through all that mumbo jumbo by the way)
That's what I get for updating my apps/plugins too early. That's, like you said, probably also the reason why downgrading to an older version of Flash Player didn't solve the issue. But it's very much a hit and miss… all 10+ computers here (and 2 more at home) with the exact same OSX/Safari/Flash Player, and all of them work just fine. I'm the only one with a faulty plugin at the moment.
Next time I will simply not update as quickly, hehe. I'm glad the issue is known and reported though… that means that they're at least looking into it
Thanks again, I guess I just have to be patient and see if/when/how this'll be fixed!
Just in case anyone else has/had issues with Flash on Mountain Lion: the latest update to Flash has indeed solved my problem.
On safari though I notice that message sometimes, and a lot of sites then load a html5 / whatever version of the video instead a few seconds later..