Can't play flash videos in Firefox
I am unable to play flash video content from facebook or CNN. I am using Firefox 31 and Flash 14.0.0.179 (32 bit) running under Windows 7 Pro. I also have the 64 bit version installed for use with internet explorer. These videos play fine in internet explorer, but not in Firefox. CNN videos stopped playing in Firefox months ago, and Facebook stopped within the last few days.
I started Firefox in safe mode, reset Firefox, uninstalled and reinstalled flash, and uninstalled and reinstalled the latest realplayer (found that suggestion online). So far, nothing has helped.
CNN Videos just freeze once the player control bar appears at the bottom of the frame. The ad plays, but freezes when the actual news video starts.
Facebook shows the thumbnail for the video (will not autoplay like it does in IE) and when you click it you get the pop-up window with the user comments to the right but just a black square where the video should be playing.
If I right click and go to settings for flash, when I click disable hardware acceleration, it re-enables it as soon as I click close on the setting screen. When I go back to settings the box is checked again.
Chosen solution
Crashes or other problems with certain multimedia content in Firefox (such as Youtube videos and Flash animations or games) can often be resolved by performing the steps in these Knowledge Base articles:
On Windows Vista and above, you can disable Flash protected mode by following the instructions on these pages:
- http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1018071#TemporaryWorkaround
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Disabling_Protected_Mode_in_Flash_11.3
(See this Adobe blog post for technical details about Flash protected mode.)
Please tell us if this helped!
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Flash content and the plugin-container have always been an issue for years now in Firefox. There have ALWAYS been the same suggestions over and over and over.. like a revolving door , and many people have tried them if you browse the forums. This does NOT happen in Internet Explorer or Chrome btw.. its a clear problem with the plugin-container.
I have an unorthidox method that involves wiping certain prefetch files on a regular basis. I am NOT saying this will resolve your issue, however you can try manually wiping them to see if it works in cmd prompt.
del "C:\Windows\Prefetch\flashpl*.pf" /q /f del "C:\Windows\Prefetch\PLUGIN-CONTAINER*.pf" /q /f del "C:\Windows\Prefetch\FIREFOX.EXE*.pf" /q /f del "C:\Windows\Prefetch\FLASHPLAYERUPDATESERVICE*.pf" /q /f
You can also read about my other fixes.. clink on my profile and there is a link to my blog that explains it in detail.
Best regards
Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately it didn't seem to help. I have another machine running XP and flash still works there under Firefox. It only seems to be an issue with the Windows 7 machine..
With the last Firefox upgrade, some plugins are no longer enabled until you enable it.
Open the Add-ons Manager by Pressing the Alt or F10 key to bring up the tool bar. Followed by; Tools > Add-ons.
Hot key; <Control> (Mac: <Command>) <Shift> A)
On the left side of the page, select Plugins.
BTW; At the top right is a link to check your plugins.
Chosen Solution
Crashes or other problems with certain multimedia content in Firefox (such as Youtube videos and Flash animations or games) can often be resolved by performing the steps in these Knowledge Base articles:
On Windows Vista and above, you can disable Flash protected mode by following the instructions on these pages:
- http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1018071#TemporaryWorkaround
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Disabling_Protected_Mode_in_Flash_11.3
(See this Adobe blog post for technical details about Flash protected mode.)
Please tell us if this helped!
Why do you have the plugin-container process disabled?
Your System Details list shows:
- dom.ipc.plugins.enabled: False
- dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npctrl.dll: False
- dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npqtplugin.dll: False
- dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll: False
Disabling the plug-in container was just a suggestion I was trying out. It has since been enabled.
FredMcD thanks!! Disabling the Flash protected mode by adding ProtectedMode=0 to the mms.cfg file fixed the problem. Flash videos now play fine on facebook and cnn.
Glad to help.
From https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1014982#answer-626060
I had the same problem on Windows 7 with Firefox 32 and could fix it by deleting the folders
%AppData%\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player %AppData%\Local\Macromedia\Flash Player
Explanation: I realized that it had to do with my user configuration files by verifying with the Windows guest account that Firefox can play the video fine. Since also resetting my Firefox account didn't help, I suspected the Flash config to cause a problem.