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Cant watch video with Flash Player blocked

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Windows 10

I went to a site to watch a video and it said 'you need to update flash player'. I downloaded Version 19.0.0.185 and it seemed to install correctly. But when I returned to the site, it still said I need to update flash player. There's an image that appears to be loading, but it just goes around and around and never loads. I haven't been able to watch any videos on any site. What should I do? Thanks

Windows 10 I went to a site to watch a video and it said 'you need to update flash player'. I downloaded Version 19.0.0.185 and it seemed to install correctly. But when I returned to the site, it still said I need to update flash player. There's an image that appears to be loading, but it just goes around and around and never loads. I haven't been able to watch any videos on any site. What should I do? Thanks

All Replies (3)

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Any suggestions?

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Note: Edge on Win10 does not use ActiveX version but its own Flash.

Flash: Grab the uninstaller from here: Uninstall Flash Player | Windows Uninstall Flash Player | Mac

Then reinstall the latest version.

Flash Player Version 19.0.0.185
https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html
Note: Windows users must download the “Internet Explorer” and “Plugin-based browsers” installers.

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Here are some things to check:

Does "Shockwave Flash" show up on the Add-ons page?

Either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+a
  • "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Plugins. On the right side, can you find that plugin? Please check the grayed area at the bottom for any disabled plugins and change "Never Activate" to "Ask to Activate" if found there.

If the plugin does not show up anywhere: There are several possible things to investigate.

Is the Plugin physically present on disk?

On 64-bit Windows, you should find it here:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash => NPSWF32_19_0_0_185.dll

If it's not there: try installing again using the installer on the following page:

https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html

In the first table, choose the one for "plugin-based browsers", either EXE or MSI should work.

Any difference?

Confirm that Firefox is scanning the registry for plugins

Firefox finds most plugins from a registry entry. Some users have the scanning turned off for some reason. Here's how to check and fix that:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste scan and pause while the list is filtered

(3) If plugin.scan.plid.all is not set to its default value of true, double-click it to toggle it back to the default.

If you changed this setting, exit and restart Firefox to trigger another scan.

If you check the Add-ons page, Plugins section again, can you find the Flash plugin there, either enabled or at the bottom disabled?

If Firefox is set to scan but still does not find the plugin and list it on the Add-ons page...

Remove Firefox's plugin registry file

Sometimes the pluginreg.dat file becomes corrupted. You can remove it and have Firefox re-scan for plugins.

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
  • Help menu > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button to launch a new Windows Explorer window showing your settings files.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
  • File menu > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename pluginreg.dat to something like pluginreg.old

Start Firefox back up again. (If you want to restore your previous non-private session, use History > Restore Previous Session.)

When you return to the Add-ons page, is the Flash plugin finally there?