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Adobe Flash Player does not install on Firefox 5 for me.

  • 3 replies
  • 34 have this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by SafeBrowser

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I've tried both installing via the plugin finder and manually downloading and installing the .exe from adobe's website, but the flash/shockwave plugin never gets listed on Firefox's list of plugins. I've also tried uninstalling, rebooting, and installing, but flash still doesn't work on me for Firefox (though it works fine on IE).

I've tried both installing via the plugin finder and manually downloading and installing the .exe from adobe's website, but the flash/shockwave plugin never gets listed on Firefox's list of plugins. I've also tried uninstalling, rebooting, and installing, but flash still doesn't work on me for Firefox (though it works fine on IE).

Chosen solution

There are 2 versions of Adobe Flash; an ActiveX version for IE only and a Plugin version for most other browsers including Firefox. On a Windows system, you should always update both individually.

  1. Using Firefox, go to the following direct download link and SAVE the download to your desktop so you can find it later: http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player.exe
  2. When the download is finished, close Firefox (File > Exit OR Firefox button > Exit)
  3. Click or double-click on the file you just saved to your desktop
    • In the installation window that appears, click the box to the left of "I have read and...." to place a check mark in the box
    • The "Install" button in the lower right corner will now be highlighted, click it.
    • The installation is quick.
  4. Start Firefox and test your installation here: https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
  5. ActiveX version (IE) link: http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_ax.exe


If this reply solves your problem, please click "Solved It" next to this reply when signed-in to the forum.

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Chosen Solution

There are 2 versions of Adobe Flash; an ActiveX version for IE only and a Plugin version for most other browsers including Firefox. On a Windows system, you should always update both individually.

  1. Using Firefox, go to the following direct download link and SAVE the download to your desktop so you can find it later: http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player.exe
  2. When the download is finished, close Firefox (File > Exit OR Firefox button > Exit)
  3. Click or double-click on the file you just saved to your desktop
    • In the installation window that appears, click the box to the left of "I have read and...." to place a check mark in the box
    • The "Install" button in the lower right corner will now be highlighted, click it.
    • The installation is quick.
  4. Start Firefox and test your installation here: https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
  5. ActiveX version (IE) link: http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_ax.exe


If this reply solves your problem, please click "Solved It" next to this reply when signed-in to the forum.

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Thanks. I did some more searching online, and it turns out I had some weird permissions problem on my computer, so what I ended up doing is manually copying flashplayer.xpt and NPSWF32.dll (which got created by the installer in WINDOWS\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash) into the Firefox plugins folder, and now everything works.

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Glad you found a solution, but there is a caveat to what you did.

Most plugins are not in the folder Fiefox\plugins. When you update Flash in the future, you may end up with 2 versions, the new one in the Macromedia folder and old one in the Firefox\plugins folder. Current Firefox distributions do not include that plugins folder, but will use whatever is placed there by the user after the user establishes the folder and places a plugin in that folder.

In the long run, you might be better off determining why, and correcting the reason(s) for, Flash not being recognized when in its proper place in the Macromedia folder.

Modified by SafeBrowser