Flash Player 10 not functioning in Firefox 3.6

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Hi ho, Lounge members — I’m running Vista Home Premium x64, on a 64-bit Sony laptop, using Firefox as my browser (version 3.6), and up until maybe a week or two ago everything was fine with this set-up. But about two weeks ago various websites I visited stopped working properly (example: the Boggle-like game called “Wordtwist” at wordtwist.org), and those same sites concurrently notified me via polite pop-ups that I needed to install the latest version of Adobe Flash Player (version 10.0.45). So I did that, same as I’ve done without a hitch a half-dozen times before. But this time, after going through the installation procedure with apparent success (as indicated by the pop-up boxes triggered at several stages in the Adobe install process) those same sites still flag me for needing Adobe Flash Player version 10.0.45, and the “broken” stuff on those sites still will not function. I’ve googled the problem, and as per recommendation I’ve tried (1) Adobe’s uninstaller, and then re-installed 10.0.45, but nothing changed. Then (2) I ran a recommended debugging program, available from Adobe, but still with no success. Some folks suggested (3) installing Flash Player 10.0.45 from within I.E., and I tried that also — and still no go. (Incidentally, the same non-functioning web pages and same “you need to install 10.0.45” messages appear at the same sites when I run I.E.) I also tried (4) downloading and installling from Adbe’s site, rather than via the site-triggered pop-ups — but still no go. So there’s the problem, and those are the fixes I’ve tried — and still I get the “broken” web pages and the “you need 10.0.45” pop-ups. Any suggestions for a fix that’ll get things working again?

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(Incidentally, the same non-functioning web pages and same “you need to install 10.0.45” messages appear at the same sites when I run I.E.)

Is this site-specific? In other words, does Flash work on some sites such as YouTube or on Adobe’s site? (E.g., adobe.com/software/flash/about/[/url])

Do you have any problems with JavaScript?

Problems that affect multiple browsers often can be traced to security software or networking devices. Do you run any security suites that could possibly block ActiveX, Flash, or advertisements?

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Is this site-specific? In other words, does Flash work on some sites such as YouTube or on Adobe’s site? (E.g., adobe.com/software/flash/about/[/url])

Do you have any problems with JavaScript?

Problems that affect multiple browsers often can be traced to security software or networking devices. Do you run any security suites that could possibly block ActiveX, Flash, or advertisements?

= = =
First, thank you for the prompt reply, jscher2000. In answer to your first diagnostic question: No, this is not a site specific glitch. I went to Youtube and to Adobe to give some Flash-requiring flicks a whirl, as you suggested, and found that with Firefox, both those sites consistently gave me the “you need the latest Flash Player 10.0.45” message and refused to play the animation/videos/whatever. But then using IE8 for comparison purposes, I found (note that this revises my original litany of symptoms), that Flash-requiring videos from Youtube and from the Adobe site do play just fine in IE8. (And I could have sworn they were not functioning properly in IE8 just yesterday.) So that means this Flash-Player-related problem is not affecting multiple browsers — only Firefox. Next, on to your second question: No, I have not ever before experienced any problems — in any browser — with JavaScript. Needless to say, I’ve recently checked and double-checked in Firefox [Tools/Options/Content/”Enable JavaScript”/checkbox suitably checked] to make certain that JavaScript is good to go. To put it a little differently, I’m almost positive that before this latest required escalation to Flash Player version 10.0.45, I never experienced any kinds of similar or related problems with JavaScript or with Flash Player or with any other plug-ins or addons or extensions or what-have you. And finally getting to your last question: No, I do not use security suites (I prefer to patch together a number of stand-alones for security — it’s a hodge-podge, but it works extremely well, according to Secunia and Steve Gibson, and it works unobtrusively — so, as far as I know, this problem wouldn’t be the result of a security measure that blocks of Active X, Flash, or ads. But now that you raise that possibility, I will carefully try running Firefox without the benefit of my various security features and add-ons — but as I say, up until quite recently, there was never the least little glitch.
Meanwhile — Further thoughts? (And thanks again.)

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I will carefully try running Firefox without the benefit of my various security features and add-ons — but as I say, up until quite recently, there was never the least little glitch.

To diagnose add-on and settings problems, you can try Firefox’s safe mode, or creating a blank new profile in Firefox. See these pages on SuMo: Safe Mode (be careful not to “reset” anything permanently), Managing profiles.

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To diagnose add-on and settings problems, you can try Firefox’s safe mode, or creating a blank new profile in Firefox. See these pages on SuMo: Safe Mode (be careful not to “reset” anything permanently), Managing profiles.

===
Thanks again, jscher2000. Problem solved. Your previous reply prompted me to try a methodical disabling and re-enabling, one-by-one, of the several security add-ons that I have supplementing Firefox, and sure enough, I found the culprit in one of them. Specifically, the snag was being caused by BitDefender’s small, quick, on-line virus-and-malware scanner, the freebie “QuickScan.” It’s surprising that that particular FF add-on was interfering, because it is not a memory-resident, always-running scanner; on the contrary, it’s a tool that you can click on to run a scan at your discretion. In any case, though, once I uninstalled it, the latest version of Flash Player functioned perfectly on all sites. Again, I am grateful for your time and effort. I appreciate your logical thinking, which pointed me in exactly the right direction.

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===
Thanks again, jscher2000. Problem solved. Your previous reply prompted me to try a methodical disabling and re-enabling, one-by-one, of the several security add-ons that I have supplementing Firefox, and sure enough, I found the culprit in one of them. Specifically, the snag was being caused by BitDefender’s small, quick, on-line virus-and-malware scanner, the freebie “QuickScan.” It’s surprising that that particular FF add-on was interfering, because it is not a memory-resident, always-running scanner; on the contrary, it’s a tool that you can click on to run a scan at your discretion. In any case, though, once I uninstalled it, the latest version of Flash Player functioned perfectly on all sites. Again, I am grateful for your time and effort. I appreciate your logical thinking, which pointed me in exactly the right direction.

Ah, Bit Defender! The most likely culprit (when present) in any security related conflict. Dump it, please. There are better scanners out there.

-- rc primak

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Ah, Bit Defender! The most likely culprit (when present) in any security related conflict. Dump it, please. There are better scanners out there.

I wholeheartily agree. I purchased Bit Defender a while back. What a mistake. It was awful. Scans kept hanging false positives, no support. It was so bad I let go of my 2 year 3 pc subscription and switched all 3 pc to MSE. What a breath of fresh air. Good bye Bit Defender.

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= = =
First, thank you for the prompt reply, jscher2000. In answer to your first diagnostic question: No, this is not a site specific glitch. I went to Youtube and to Adobe to give some Flash-requiring flicks a whirl, as you suggested, and found that with Firefox, both those sites consistently gave me the “you need the latest Flash Player 10.0.45” message and refused to play the animation/videos/whatever. But then using IE8 for comparison purposes, I found (note that this revises my original litany of symptoms), that Flash-requiring videos from Youtube and from the Adobe site do play just fine in IE8.

Warning – comparing Firefox and I.E. is NOT relevant if you have different versions of Flash.
Eliminate every trace of all Adobe software and you cannot view Flash.
If you then use a browser to visit Adobe and allow it to install Flash it will do so.

Problem :-
If you do this with I.E. you only get the Active’X vulnerable version of Flash,
and Firefox cannot use this so it will not display Flash stuff.
If you do this with Firefox you only get the less vulnerable version of Flash,
and I.E. cannot use this, so it will not display Flash stuff.
You have to visit and install with both browsers if you want Flash on each.

Conclusion – the two browsers use different Flash installations,
hence the versions may be different, such that one browser is up to date and the other is not.

I have now removed the Active’X version to avoid unwanted bloat and vulnerabilities,
but most importantly to give my family an extra incentive to abandon I.E. in favour of Firefox.

Alan

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I have had similar problems as described here and thought I’d add my two cents.

I run Win7 Home Premium and Flash was always being called for whenever I browsed sites such as YouTube. I did everything you recommended and was not able to solve the problem, even with the new 10.1 version from Adobe’s site. At first I thought it was because I was using 64-bit IE8 and FF, codenamed Namoroka. And just when I was resigned to wait until Adobe could get it together I decided to try Opera.

No problems at all. Not one. I remembered reading they use a different method for displaying these things and I more than satisfied now. In addition I get a very fast browsing experience and built-in e-mail and RSS, ala SeaMonkey. (That sounds like a paid testimonial, but it isn’t.)

Perhaps if anyone has been experiencing problems with Flash they may wish to take this suggestion. I’m just glad I didn’t have to compromise with an Adobe product for once.

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I have had similar problems as described here and thought I’d add my two cents.

I run Win7 Home Premium and Flash was always being called for whenever I browsed sites such as YouTube. I did everything you recommended and was not able to solve the problem, even with the new 10.1 version from Adobe’s site. At first I thought it was because I was using 64-bit IE8 and FF, codenamed Namoroka. And just when I was resigned to wait until Adobe could get it together I decided to try Opera.

No problems at all. Not one. I remembered reading they use a different method for displaying these things and I more than satisfied now. In addition I get a very fast browsing experience and built-in e-mail and RSS, ala SeaMonkey. (That sounds like a paid testimonial, but it isn’t.)

Perhaps if anyone has been experiencing problems with Flash they may wish to take this suggestion. I’m just glad I didn’t have to compromise with an Adobe product for once.

Your problem is that unlike Opera, which is not 64-bit at this time, your other browsers are 64-bit programs. But the Flash Players are not available in 64-bit versions. So, they will not always work in a 64-bit browsing environment. Same goes for scripts at many web sites. Folks just have not yet caught up with 64-bit browsers. YouTube is one such site.

Again, this problem is not related to the current thread.

-- rc primak

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I posted this morning and got notified of a reply, but my post is gone, so I’ll start over.

In Firefox 3.5 the graphs on this page stopped working giving me the same message to install what is already installed
http://www.widman.biz/English/Calculators/Graph.html

I hoped it would be fixed in 3.6 and it wasn’t. It works fine in IE, but not in firefox on windows xp or vista, or firefox and safari on my mac.

can someone who has fixed the problem for other sites please check this link and tell me if it works on their “fixed” firefox?

thanks

=== Edit ===

To assist with this question, please visit the following new thread: Flash not working on one site (Fx 3.5-3.6).

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I posted this morning and got notified of a reply, but my post is gone, so I’ll start over.

In Firefox 3.5 the graphs on this page stopped working giving me the same message to install what is already installed
http://www.widman.bi…tors/Graph.html

I hoped it would be fixed in 3.6 and it wasn’t. It works fine in IE, but not in firefox on windows xp or vista, or firefox and safari on my mac.

can someone who has fixed the problem for other sites please check this link and tell me if it works on their “fixed” firefox?

thanks

You should have opened a new thread for this issue, which is unrelated to the current thread. But I followed your link in Firefox 3.6.2, and it works just fine, with no rendering problems (graphs all messed up in the browser window). Try upgrading and see if that helps. Otherwise, your Firefox Profile may be corrupted. You can find the Profile in C:/Documents and settings/ (username)/Application Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles Delete the entire Profile from there and Firefox should regenerate a new, all-defaults Profile the next time you open the browser. Then you can start over with any add-ons or customizations you had in the old Profile.

-- rc primak

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You should have opened a new thread for this issue, which is unrelated to the current thread. But I followed your link in Firefox 3.6.2, and it works just fine, with no rendering problems (graphs all messed up in the browser window).

Hi Bob, by any chance are you running Flash 9?

You can find the Profile in C:/Documents and settings/ (username)/Application Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles Delete the entire Profile from there and Firefox should regenerate a new, all-defaults Profile the next time you open the browser. Then you can start over with any add-ons or customizations you had in the old Profile.

You really should recommend a backup when suggesting deleting a profile. People may not realize it stores all of their bookmarks, saved passwords, etc.

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Hi Bob, by any chance are you running Flash 9?

You really should recommend a backup when suggesting deleting a profile. People may not realize it stores all of their bookmarks, saved passwords, etc.

1) Flash 10, latest update, Secunia PSI confirmed.

2) Sorry about not mentioning a nice Firefox Extension I use to make weekly backups of all necessary Firefox Profile information for each Profile, and each User. This is the Firefox FEBE Extension. It backs up everything you tell it to back up to a special Folder, which can then be copied to a Data Partition or and external drive or Flash Drive for safety. I should have mentioned the wisdom of doing this, whether or not you are changing anything in Firefox.I always make new Folder Icons for each User and each Profile, or else store the FEBE Backups for each Profile a separate Folder when backing up to external media.

-- rc primak

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Hi Bob, by any chance are you running Flash 9?

You really should recommend a backup when suggesting deleting a profile. People may not realize it stores all of their bookmarks, saved passwords, etc.

Although backups are a good idea, in this instance, if his profile is corrupted there would be no point in doing a backup, all the backup would do is reinstall the corrupted settings and he would be back where he started.
Unless he has a backup from before the problems occurred. Which means there is no problem using this backup.

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Although backups are a good idea, in this instance, if his profile is corrupted there would be no point in doing a backup, all the backup would do is reinstall the corrupted settings and he would be back where he started.

There are several individual settings files and databases in the profile folder. Making a backup (a copy of the folder in a safe place for future reference) does not mean a user would be forced to restore 100% of those files. Having a copy of the folder means being able to selectively restore any or none of those files and databases.

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There are several individual settings files and databases in the profile folder. Making a backup (a copy of the folder in a safe place for future reference) does not mean a user would be forced to restore 100% of those files. Having a copy of the folder means being able to selectively restore any or none of those files and databases.

Which is where the FEBE Extension really comes into its own. You can selectively restore on e thing at a time, until the offender is isolated. Or, leave out what you are pretty sure is corrupt, and restore the rest. The extension makes it very easy.

-- rc primak

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I posted this morning and got notified of a reply, but my post is gone, so I’ll start over.

Richard, I moved your post to a new thread — but I forgot to send you a Message (using the Lounge’s private messaging system) about that. Sorry!

Your thread is over here: Flash not working on one site (Fx 3.5-3.6).

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I’m running XP and my preferred browser is Chrome. It gave me the Flash needed message yesterday, as did Firefox. Neither responded differently after installing the latest Flash. Today, neither browser works on the Flash sites, but I get no message.

I’m going to try the Firefox work around. Chrome appears to be a different animal so it may take more digging to repair it.

jn

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I’m running XP and my preferred browser is Chrome. It gave me the Flash needed message yesterday, as did Firefox. Neither responded differently after installing the latest Flash. Today, neither browser works on the Flash sites, but I get no message.

I’m going to try the Firefox work around. Chrome appears to be a different animal so it may take more digging to repair it.

jn

It is not uncommon for some sites to take up to a week to upgrade their Flash codes to the latest Flash Player version. During that lag time, there may be problems. Yahoo Web Mail does that to me occasionally, but more ofter after I update Java JRE.

Something else, and here Secunia PSI is invaluable: older versions of Flash Player and its plug-ins are not automatically removed from all possible locations on your computer when you install the new version. This can also cause problems. Follow the paths PSI shows you to the older versions, and remove whatever is there. Windows Add/Remove Programs does not do a complete job in these cases. And after installing a new Flash Player version, go to the Windows Add/Remove Programs list, and Remove the Adobe Download Manager. That program is terribly insecure. It will reappear each time you update Flash Player or Flash Plug-ins. And the Manager also installs an insecure Active-X Control, which uninstalling removes in most cases.

Remember, Chrome and Firefox install their plug-ins on a per-user basis. So if you have multiple Users or Profiles, each has to be updated separately in most cases.

-- rc primak

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Remove the Adobe Download Manager. That program is terribly insecure. It will reappear each time you update Flash Player or Flash Plug-ins. And the Manager also installs an insecure Active-X Control, which uninstalling removes in most cases.

I avoid the Adobe Download Manager debacle by downloading my Flash versions at http://filehippo.com

There’s always a link to the latest flash player for IE. If the latest version is a beta I browse to “Old Versions” (link to the right). There you’ll find the latest Flash download. It’s usually around 1.7 or 1.8 mb download.

Then for Firefox (and others) scroll down to the section/link called “Related Downloads” and you’ll see a link for the latest Non-IE versions. Follow the same instructions as above to get to any version you want.

There you have it – no Adobe Download Manager involved. Sweet.

Now if only someone could tell me how to install Quicktime without iTunes

ed

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I avoid the Adobe Download Manager debacle by downloading my Flash versions at http://filehippo.com

There’s always a link to the latest flash player for IE. If the latest version is a beta I browse to “Old Versions” (link to the right). There you’ll find the latest Flash download. It’s usually around 1.7 or 1.8 mb download.

Then for Firefox (and others) scroll down to the section/link called “Related Downloads” and you’ll see a link for the latest Non-IE versions. Follow the same instructions as above to get to any version you want.

There you have it – no Adobe Download Manager involved. Sweet.

Now if only someone could tell me how to install Quicktime without iTunes

ed

Nice catch on FileHippo! I’ve always liked their site, and now I like it even more.

Link for QuickTime without iTunes, direct from Apple Support: HERE At the download link, just leave iTunes unchecked. And uncheck the Apple Newsletter box, unless you enjoy reams of spam.

When I installed QuickTime without iTunes (some time ago), it would not launch. Something about wanting Apple Networking Services to be active, and I think I never installed Apple Networking Service. But try it and see how it works for you now.

Bear in mind that without iTunes installed, you have no access to the iTunes Store. That means “No Podcasts for You!”

-- rc primak

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The best solution might be to contact the site owner to recode it.

In the post here (where my post was moved) someone helped me with a code that made my flash work on both IE and Firefox. The link is on the first page of this thread, although it was specific.

Of course that only works if the site owner wants to work on his site. A supplier I have has a site that is black and pink in IE, but in Firefox and Safari it is black on black. They say most people don’t have trouble so it’s not worth the trouble to change the colors.

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