Using the Flash plugin with Firefox
The Adobe Flash Player browser plugin lets you view video and animated content in Firefox.
Note: The Firefox Software Update feature does not update installed plugins. See the Adobe Security bulletins and advisories page for information about security and stability issues affecting Adobe Flash Player and other Adobe products.
Table Of Contents
- Installing Flash
- Testing Flash
- Updating Flash
- Uninstalling Flash
- Troubleshooting
- Flash works in Internet Explorer but not in Firefox
- Flash-based video or audio does not play or stops after a few seconds
- Flash does not work properly and/or will not update
- Flash content shows as question mark
Installing Flash
The Flash plugin is not included with Firefox. If you don't have the Flash plugin installed when you visit a website that requires it, the following bar may appear at the top of the main Firefox window:
To install the Flash plugin:
- In the yellow bar, click .
- In the dialog, select the latest version of Flash listed on-screen. Click .
- Review the end-user license agreement. To begin installation, click .
- When the installation is done, click .
The latest version of the Flash plugin is installed.
- Note: If the yellow bar doesn't come up or you get an error during installation, you can install Flash from Adobe's site using the same instructions as for updating Flash given below.
In many modern Linux distributions, the plugin can be usually installed as a package for the current Linux distro used (for example in Ubuntu it is named flashplugin-nonfree).
Testing Flash
Adobe provides a web page to test your Flash plugin.
Updating Flash
To find out which version you have installed and how to update to the latest version, go to the Flash test page.
- Note: The Flash auto-update mechanism may notify you periodically about available Flash updates. See About Updating Adobe Flash Player for more information.
To update to the latest Flash Player version:
- Using Firefox, go to the Adobe Flash Player download page.
- Click the button. You will be prompted to allow the website to install software on your computer.
- Click to begin installing the Adobe Download Manager. The Software installation window will appear.
- In the Software Installation window, click .
- After the installation finishes, the Firefox Add-ons window will appear. Click .
- After Firefox restarts, the Adobe Download Manager window will appear. It will download the update to Flash. When it is finished, click .
The new version of Flash will be installed after the Adobe Download Manager window closes. The Adobe Download Manager extension and program will be uninstalled automatically the next time you restart Windows.
To update to the latest Flash Player version:
- Go to Adobe's Flash download page and follow the instructions to download the latest update of Flash Player.
- Run the DMG file to mount the disk image.
- In the Finder, select the Flash Player disk image, and run Adobe Flash Plyer.pkg, to run the installer.
- Restart Firefox.
For more information, read Adobe's Flash Player installation instructions.
Uninstalling Flash
For instructions on how to uninstall Flash, read this article on Adobe's website.
Troubleshooting
Flash works in Internet Explorer but not in Firefox
There are two different types of Flash Players: An ActiveX version for Internet Explorer and a plugin version for Firefox and other browsers. If you want Flash to work in Firefox you must install the plugin version, as explained above.
Flash-based video or audio does not play or stops after a few seconds
Please see: Flash-based videos and sound do not play correctly
Flash does not work properly and/or will not update
Sometimes it is possible for Firefox to have two different versions of the Flash plugin installed. This can cause the following types of problems:
- Flash content does not work, acts strangely, or causes errors. (This is due to an old version of Flash being used to play content that requires the latest version of Flash.)
- Installation of the latest version of Flash apparently fails, even though the Flash installer returned no errors and seemed to work fine. (The old version of Flash has priority over the new version, and the Flash installer failed to remove the old version.)
To find out how many versions of Flash you have installed:
- At the top of the Firefox window, click the Tools menu and select Add-ons. The Add-ons window will open.
- In the Add-ons window, select the Plugins panel to display a list of installed plugins.
- Count how many times the "Shockwave Flash" heading appears.
If the "Shockwave Flash" heading appears more than once, then you have more than one version of the Flash plugin installed. In this case you must remove one copy of the Flash plugin, and perhaps reinstall the latest version. To do this:
- Exit Firefox. From the menu at the top of the Firefox window, select File and then select the Exit menu item.
- Find your Firefox installation folder. (Typically C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\)
- Navigate into the \plugins\ folder.
- Delete the file called NPSWF32.dll.
- Start Firefox.
- Open the Add-ons window, and select the Plugins panel.
- Ensure only one “Shockwave Flash” heading appears.
- Visit the Flash Test Page to ensure you are on the latest version. See the Testing Flash section above.
Flash content shows as question mark
See Flash content shows as question mark.
Based on information from Flash (mozillaZine KB)
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