Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again

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The message The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed is shown when the Flash plugin stops working unexpectedly. Simply reload the page to restart the plugin and show the video (or game, animation, etc.) again.

Firefox runs plugins like Flash in a separate process (see What is plugin-container). This is done to prevent Firefox from crashing when a plugin stops working. This article covers what you can do to avoid Flash plugin crashes.

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Fixing issues with Flash 11.3

There are two new issues specific to Flash 11.3. See these articles for solutions:

Update Flash

The latest version of the Flash plugin should perform better and crash less often. To check if Flash is up to date, visit Mozilla's Plugin Check page. If it says that Flash needs to be updated, install the latest version manually using the steps below.

  1. 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.
  2. When the download has finished, close Firefox. Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Quit.
  3. Open the Flash installer file you downloaded and follow the instructions.
Note: If you are having problems with the Flash installer from Adobe's download page, you can use this Flash Player installer link to directly download the full installer.
  1. Go to Adobe's Flash Player download page and download the Flash installer.
  2. Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Quit.
  3. Open the file you downloaded (i.e. install_flash_player_osx_intel.dmg).
  4. In the Finder, open the Install Adobe Flash Player.app to run the installer, then follow the installer's instructions.
  1. Go to Adobe's Flash Player download page.
  2. When prompted, save the file (i.e. install_flash_player_"version"_linux."processor".tar.gz).
  3. Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Quit.
  4. Open a Terminal window (in Gnome, click on the Applications menu, select Accessories, and then select Terminal.)
  5. In the Terminal window, change to the directory where you saved the file you downloaded (e.g. cd /home/user/Downloads).
  6. Extract libflashplayer.so from the file you downloaded with the command tar -zxvf install_flash_player_"version"_linux."processor".tar.gz.
  7. 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.

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For more help, see Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems.

Update Firefox

The newest version of Firefox includes all of the latest stability and security fixes. Making sure it's up to date will help keep your computer secure and running great.

  1. At the top of the Firefox window click the Firefox button, go over to the Help menu and select About Firefox. For Windows XP: Go to the Help menu and select About Firefox.On the menu bar click the Firefox menu and select About Firefox.At the top of the Firefox window click the Help menu and select About Firefox.
  2. The About Firefox window will open and Firefox will begin checking for updates. If updates are available, they will begin downloading automatically. If Firefox is already up to date, just close the About Firefox window.
  3. When the updates are downloaded and ready to be installed, click Apply Update. Firefox will be restarted and the updates will be installed.

For more help with this, see Update Firefox to the latest release.