Some of your earlier workarounds for Flash issues may have gotten lost when you upgraded Windows...

This is some standard guidance that addresses the most common issues with the Flash Player plugin. I'm sure you've seen some of it before, but just in case:

(1) If you have any recorders/downloaders that interact with Flash media make sure they are as up-to-date as possible, or disable them temporarily.

(2) Disable hardware graphics acceleration in Firefox and in Flash to work around graphics driver incompatibilities

(A) In Firefox, un-check the box here and restart:

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced > General > "Use hardware acceleration when available"

(B) In Flash, see this support article from Adobe: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues

(3) Disable the Flash Player's protected mode feature (Windows Vista and higher)

See this support article from Adobe under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?

On #3, if there are problems with permissions, try this way:

(1) In a My Computer or Windows Explorer window, open this folder:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash

If that folder does not exist, then you are using 32-bit Windows, and you can open the following folder instead:

C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash

(Note: This folder exists on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, but on 64-bit Windows Firefox uses the Flash player in the SysWOW64 folder instead.)

(2) Check for a file named mms.cfg:

Note: If you do not see file extensions such as .ocx, .dll, .exe, and .cfg on the files in this folder, then Windows may be hiding these from you. In order to work with file names accurately, it is best to unhide the extensions. This Microsoft support article has the steps: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/865219.

(A) If mms.cfg exists, drag it to your Documents folder where you can edit it without being bothered about administrator privileges

(B) If mms.cfg does not exist, open your Documents folder, right-click > New > Text File and name the new file mms.cfg

(3) Open mms.cfg from Documents into a text editor such as Notepad.

Add this on its own line (I put it last):

ProtectedMode=0

Save the file and close Notepad.

(4) Hold down the Ctrl key and drag the mms.cfg file back to the Flash folder to make a copy there, keeping the original in Documents

This change will take effect once the Flash plugin is completely unloaded, which may require exiting and restarting Firefox (allow a few minutes for all the Flash processes in memory to terminate after exiting Firefox).

The only difference between last Thursday and today, with the YouTube anomaly, is Win 8.1. Before that, I didn't have to take any workaround steps to get Firefox to hum. Worked right out of the can. I'm beginning to believe the problem lies in the Win 8.1 upgrade, rather than with Firefox. I tried finding any other questions/discussions about this particular problem. I have intermittent network problems, along with other gremlins that have sneaked in. I will, however, look at the other steps that you have suggested.

Thanks

jscher2000, sorry that I haven't been back here sooner. I am not fond of 'work arounds.' It either works or it hasn't been setup for this installation.

Enough of my blathering, though. I have found and fixed the problem with not having any sound after upgrading to Win 8.1 from 8.0. Also, the problem with YouTube videos stopping after a few seconds.

The solution to my problem, whether the same can be said for other people, lies in the fact that the drivers for my Lenovo Yoga 13 that the Win 8.1 upgrade came with from Microsoft just didn't work. I visited Lenovo online and found that there are a lot of new updates to drivers that are associated with the Win 8.1. After installing the newest sound driver, I was back in business. Before, the videos would play in IE but not Firefox, no sound came from either, I could have sound after enabling it but upon opening any application the sound went away.

Bottom line, for me anyway, the solution was to get the hardware driver from the manufacturer. The Microsoft driver was not compatible. This could also apply to others.

By the way, Flash is now integral to IE and is updated along with IE. Shockwave is updated from Adobe and can be updated from within Control Panel using the Flash request for update and follow the instructions from Adobe there for updating to the newest Shockwave. Kinda screwy, huh? Go to the Flash for update in Control Panel, let it tell you that Flash is updated thru IE, but the Shockwave update can be done from there, with instructions.

Thanks for your time and interest in helping.

I'm having a similar problem. When I try to watch a video online using FireFox under Win 8.1 (NOT my first choice, but we didn't really have a choice) I get an error message saying that Adobe FlashPlayer is required to run the video. And when I download Adobe FlashPlayer and install it, I get an error message saying that it can't because FlashPlayer is already installed in Internet Explorer. Apparently Windows is being snotty about people using any browser other than theirs. I'm about to try to uninstall FlashPlayer entirely and then see whether I can install it so that it will work for all browsers. I'll let you know whether that works. If not, I could really use some help on this.

MargretMinette

That doesn't work either. Neither I.E. nor FlashPlayer appears in Programs and Features for uninstalling. When I tried to simply move the I.E. folder in Program Files off to a flash drive, I ran into the error that said I needed permission from "Trusted Installer" to do it (apparently either Microsoft or else Micro Center, from whom we bought the computer). This is very frustrating. Has anyone else encountered this problem, and, if so, do you know a fix for it?

MargretMinette

Margret, my problem was that I upgraded from Win 8 to 8.1. I am using a Lenovo Ultrabook Yoga 13. After upgrading to W8.1, I couldn't get any sound from Youtube using Firefox, but I did using MS Internet Explorer. Plus some other things on my 'uberbook' were kinda squirrely, such as my sound would be disabled after a few seconds, constantly. During my search for my solution, I found that in Control Panel, System & Security, Adobe Flash Player was there. I clicked on it and went through the steps of updating it. There are both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. When you try to update it, you will be told that the upgrade is not made that way, but rather it is updated through Windows Update as it is an integral part of Internet Explorer. Adobe Shockwave can be updated thru this area of Control Panel. My search then took me to Lenovo to check for system updates. It seems that with Win 8.1, there are driver updates that abound for most computers. Must be some difference between Win 8 and Win 8.1 that causes driver updates to be necessary. Anyway, after updating my system component drivers, all is well in YouTube land with the sound and other inconsistencies. To see all of the information with this question I submitted, follow:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/979973?

That is my question. jscher2000 put a long answer up, but the solution was actually driver updates. Bottom line.

Good luck. I'm here if you have other questions related to this. I can try others, but no guarantees.

Firefox uses a different (NPAPI) Flash plugin than IE (ActiveX), so make sure to install the Flash Player plugin for Firefox.

Latest Flash player versions here:

• http://www.adobe.com/special/products/flashplayer/fp_distribution3.html

See also this KB articles for more troubleshooting options:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Troubleshooting

Thank you! That fixed it immediately. I wish I could get this kind of response from my doctor's office.

I would happily vote this the best answer, but I can't figure out how.

Margret Minette

Margret, you're welcome. You made my evening. I never thought I could provide an answer to a problem in this type of arena. Thank You!!!

Youtube would start on firefox 28 and then after a couple of seconds would stop because it encountered and error. After resetting, reinstalling and checking all of the settings I contacted Gateway live chat and they had me reinstall the audio drivers. I am running 8.1 on a Gateway desktop. The following steps cured my problems. 1.uninstall the listed audio drivers 2.Go to search and type in Recovery 3.Open Recovery Management 4.Click on Reinstall drivers or applications 5.Find your audio driver and reinstall it. After restarting, the youtube playback was normal with no issues. Hopefully this will help someone else with this issue.

I'm also having this problem. I'm having firefox 29.0 and after a couple youtube will stop.

May I know how do you :- 1.uninstall the listed audio drivers 2.Go to search and type in Recovery 3.Open Recovery Management 4.Click on Reinstall drivers or applications 5.Find your audio driver and reinstall it.

agnestee12, you shouldn't have to reinvent everything. Depending on your machine (mine is a Lenovo Yoga13), you should only have to go to your computer manufacturer's website, goto support, locate your audio driver, download and install. It will overwrite the existing driver. I found that when Win 8.1 came out, Lenovo had to create new drivers for just about the whole machine, audio, video, etc. They drivers for Win 8.0 and Win 8.1. So there was something in the upgrade that caused the need for updated drivers. If you just want to know where System Restore is, goto Control Panel>System and Security>System>System Protection (listed on the left). If you and extra hard drive or cloud service, you can create a recovery area that will 'refresh' your system without harming other files. That's at Control Panel>System and Security>Action Center>Recovery. To find the search function, if you have a touch screen, sweep in from the right side of the screen or move your mouse pointer to the top right corner of the screen. It's the magnifying glass. Some computer manufacturers modify the appearance of Windows program to suit themselves, but it should be fairly consistent. You can hunt for different things by just clicking on them, following all the way through until the end without actually performing the function. When you get to the final step, just 'cancel'. No changes will be made. That way, you can explore without actually changing anything. I hope I have helped you.

Oh, agnestee12, if you're looking to update the Flash Player for FireFox, just open Control Panel>System and Security. It's located at the bottom of that list. For Internet Explore, the Flash Player is integrated into the program by Microsoft, so any updates for IE automatically include the Flash function.