Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again

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This article is no longer maintained, so its content might be out of date.

End of Flash support: Like other browsers and Adobe, Firefox ended Flash support at the end of 2020. Please see End of support for Adobe Flash for more information.

The message, "The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed," is shown when the Flash plugin stops working unexpectedly. Reloading the page will often get the video, game or animation to play again.

Plugin crash notification Fx21

If the Flash plugin continues to crash, updating to the latest version of Flash may fix the issue. This article explains how to update Flash and other possible 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 Adobe's test page. If it says you have an outdated version of Flash, install the latest version manually using the steps below.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.

    0a85171f1802a3b0d9f46ffb997ddc02-1260326970-447-1.png

Disable hardware acceleration in Flash

Many Flash problems can be resolved by disabling hardware acceleration in your Flash Player settings (Adobe's Flash Player Help - Display Settings page has details). To disable hardware acceleration in Flash:

  1. Go to this Adobe Flash Player Help page.
  2. Right-clickHold down the Control key while you click on the Flash Player logo on that page, then click on Settings in the context menu. The Adobe Flash Player Settings screen will open.
  3. Click on the icon at the bottom-left of the Adobe Flash Player Settings window to open the Display panel.
  4. Remove the check mark from Enable hardware acceleration.

    fpSettings1.png
  5. Click Close to close the Adobe Flash Player Settings Window.
  6. Restart Firefox.

Disable Flash protected mode

Important: The following solution does not apply to the 64-bit version of Firefox.
Adobe's Flash protected mode can cause hangs or plugin crashes for some users. To disable it, follow these steps:
Warning: Protected mode is an Adobe Flash security feature that is turned on by default. Turning off Flash protected mode disables a security protection.
  1. Click the menu button Fx89menuButton, click Add-ons and themes and select Plugins.
  2. Find Shockwave Flash in the list of plugins and click the Options button.
  3. Remove the check mark from Enable Adobe Flash protected mode.
    Fx38-UI-AdobeFlash-protected-mode
    Note: To learn more, see the Adobe Flash protected mode in Firefox article.
  4. Click the menu button New Fx Menu and then click Exit Close 29 to completely close Firefox, so that the change can take effect.
  5. Restart Firefox.

Other solutions

These fine people helped write this article:

AliceWyman, Chris Ilias, philipp, Underpass, Богданцев Сергій, Tonnes, Michael Verdi, scoobidiver, Swarnava Sengupta, ideato, Joni, Artist, Dinesh, Angela Lazar
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