Hello roughbeast, try to Re-initializing the plugins database and check it again.

thank you

Continuing from your original post in this thread - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/944076#answer-433346

Are you reading the article "Install the Flash plugin to view videos, animations and games" to which I posted a link in my reply to you in that other thread? It specifically says in a gray shaded area about trying to install from a video site (under "Installing Flash using the Plugin Finder Service"):

• If you don't have Flash installed you may see a yellow info bar with an Install Missing Plugin button. This is the Plugin Finder Service and it won't work on OS X. To install Flash, skip to the next section, Installing the Flash plugin manually.

Follow the instructions for manually installing Flash using the instructions for OSX in the section "Installing the Flash plugin manually" (be sure that "Mac OSX" is selected at the top of that article.)

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-flash-plugin-view-videos-animations-games#w_installing-the-flash-plugin-manually

Well, something worked. Before I saw your reply, I went to the Adobe site and downloaded something called Flashplayer 11 plugin debug.dmg. And this time it worked! Shockwave Flash 11.7.700.169 is now on my FF list of add-ons. And I can see the video I was testing this morning. I don't know if it will work for everything.

Before I did the above, I tried again with regular Flashplayer 11, also from the Adobe site, and got the same result as I've been getting - nada. It is in my Apps but with the international circle/slash through it, and didn't appear on my FF plugins.

I wonder if I should follow that re-initializing process you advised. Maybe I should leave well enough alone? I already disable the player to keep it from slowing down web pages so drastically.

At this point, I don't think you need to reinitialize Firefox's plugin database unless you notice other glitches. I assume you only have the one Shockwave Flash player listed here:

Tools menu > Add-ons > Plugins category

How do you enable the player when you want to use it? Manually going through the Plugins page sounds like a hassle. Have you considered using an extension for that, such as FlashBlock? I don't use it myself, but others have reported good results.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/flashblock/

Reinitializing the plugin database is only necessary when known plugins are installed but are not being shown in Add-ons > Plugins.

Link to the "debug" version of Flashplayer that you downloaded? If it is from this page - https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html - it is intended for developers of Flash content, and is not what you need. Uninstall it (I believe OSX users must drag from the Applications folder to Trash to uninstall) and then install manually per the instructions above; download from the link https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html (download the OSX Intel dmg installer, now that I know you are using OSX).

Additionally, remember that the current versions of Firefox are 32-bit browsers and therefore need the 32-bit versions of Plugins (Flash, Java, etc.).

It's easy enough to enable/disable the player when I want. Like you said, Tools>Add-ons>Plugins. I've heard about Flashblock and considered it, but figured I'd stick with FF's own system. Things get confusing enough.

I might have downloaded the debugger, but it was Shockwave Flash 11.7.700.169 that showed up in FF's plugins list. Weird. But it works. When I go to Adobe's Find Version site, I can see the little movie and it says I have the right one. Are these apps that should also show up in my Apps folder? Because the Flashplayer icon-with-curved-arrow used to be there and isn't anymore. Instead I have a grayed out document icon with the circle/slash symbol over it - that's in the OS X icon display. When I open Apps in Finder, the regular Flash icon is there (without the curved arrow), date modified is March 29, 2013 (maybe when I last updated it) and the size is 41.4 MB. It's all very strange - and I've found this strangeness most often with Adobe stuff.

roughbeast:

The decision to keep the debugger version or remove it is yours, if in fact that is what you have installed (you seem a bit uncertain).

Whatever you have installed will show the same version, 11.7.700.169, on the adobe version test page, as they are all updated (regular and debugger versions) at the same time.

I do not know how large the file should be for OSX, but in Windows, the Plugin is 794kb (not mb) and the download of the Flash installer is 17,193kb (about 16mb) -- that includes the executable packages and the routine that uninstalls the old Flash version and installs the new Flash version and some auxilliary files. The download size of the DMG installer on the "distribution3" page (link posted above) is 17.2mb. I have no idea what you are seeing that is 41.4mb in size.

Again, the decision to keep what you have or to uninstall it and get the needed/ordinary/simple Flashplayer is yours.

Why in Hell can't Firefox make a simple way to install the required flash player? Every time I have to go to the Adobe Flash site, I find a confusing mass of descriptions and instructions but NO SIMPLE, STRAIGHTFORWARD way to download and install the one file that is needed! If you want me to continue using Firefox, then make these necessary add-ons automatic [no user involvement other than "agree" or "not agree"]. I am personally fed up with the hassles and difficulties of constantly updating the stupid goddamn flash player nonsense that I am faced with almost every damn time I access the internet. Either update the damn flash player automatically or find some alternative method of delivering the content that this stupid flash business is supposed to deliver. Failure to remedy this issue will result in my - and probably many other users - refusing to further use or support Firefox. This is a simple thing for you to fix, but a thing that is annoying as hell - and a deal breaker - for many of us users.

Hi ronc2, Adobe usually auto-detects your browser as Firefox and presents you with a one-button download page. (Example attached.) I'm not sure why that isn't happening for you. What does your page say?

Also, I should ask how you are navigating to Adobe's site? If you start from the Plugin Check page, you should get straight to a Firefox specific page: https://www.mozilla.org/plugincheck/

Hello jscher2000 Thanks for your help, and I apologize for my language in my original post, but I was most extremely frustrated, as this problem has come up too many times for me to accept. The situation is this: I am responsible for uploading my churches' Sunday sermons to a podcast service. Firefox has been the most efficient browser to use for this purpose until recently - the last two weeks or so - when I began getting the message stating that Flash has been disabled and I must install a new improved version of Flash player. I understand that there are security issues with flash player, but

1. 1 if Firefox sees fit to disable it why can't users be informed of that fact by email or some other means before we are forced to stop our activity and try to install a new version?
2. 2 the message states simply that it has been disabled and we must install a new version. It would GREATLY HELP if the error message included a DIRECT LINK to the required Flash installation, but instead when responding to the message, I end up at a page which only describes various Flash versions, and never gives any indication or link to the ONE GODDAMN flash installation that will solve the issue!

I find this to be true any time I ever need to replace or update a Flash application, and it is extremely irritating. There are so many damn versions of Flash that the normal, non IT-tech user can't make heads nor tails out of any of it.

Why should it be so damn hard, when a site requires a certain Flash installation, for that site to give a DIRECT LINK to the item it asks us to install?

I am totally fed up with all the Adobe Flash bull**** that I'm asked to put up with lately. If the damn thing has such serious security vulnerabilities, then Adobe should simply take it off the market until such vulnerabilities are fixed.

And if a website requires a new installation, then the website should give a DIRECT INSTALLATION LINK to the Flash version it WANTS, not make us fiddle-fart around half a day on the Adobe site trying to figure out what the hell it is we need!

I get these damn Flash error messages almost every damn day I go on the web, and frankly I'm getting sick and tired of it. Adobe should fix these issues once and for all without pestering users,k or they should god damn well get out of the effing business!

Sick and tired of the goddamn flash issues, and quitting any application or web site that says I have the wrong one, or need another one!

FYI: I have been building pcs and using the internet since Windows 3.1 and have never had such a headache as has been the case with all these recent Flash issues. y suggestion to Adobe is: fix it or get off the pot! A lot of us are totally fed up with all this "vulnerability" crap! There simply has to be a better way of doing these things.

To answer your questions:

1. 1-- I get the error message and click on the link provided in that message. It takes me to a google-like information page containing all sorts of descriptions of Flash and related apps and services, but nowhere on the page is the slightest HINT of how or where to download and install the Flash component that the message says has been disabled and needs to be replaced.

1. 2--

when I've gone to the Firefox plugin check page, all I see is the notation : "browser plug-in disabled". I have no idea what browser plugin is referred to, but I do not like loading my browser with resource-consuming plugins, so I have no more than about three: an ad blocker,a website "reliability" checker and maybe one other I can't think of right now. In short, I have very few add-ons, none of which should have any effect on my ability to dl and install any Flash player.

If Firefox is providing a bad link to the update, that definitely should be fixed. I haven't tested (I think I would need to track down a pretty old version to get that message).

Usually you can wait quite a while to update before there is a hard block: typically you get a click-to-activate "soft" block first, so you are aware that you need to update at some point. Sounds as though you didn't get the "early warning" for some reason.

Flash 11 includes an auto-updater that I notice now and then when I restart Windows. Are you allowing that to run?