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flash player not updating

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W10 FF48. When opening, program reports" latest Flash Player not installed. Update to 19.x or above." I perform update but get same message. Under Control Panel-Programs I note Latest Flash Player (22.x) is installed. It is as if the desired program is not recognizing the update. I have repeated the update process several times. Comments?

W10 FF48. When opening, program reports" latest Flash Player not installed. Update to 19.x or above." I perform update but get same message. Under Control Panel-Programs I note Latest Flash Player (22.x) is installed. It is as if the desired program is not recognizing the update. I have repeated the update process several times. Comments?

All Replies (3)

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Next to your post, under Question Details > More System Details, the Flash plugin is not listed. That may mean either that Firefox did not find it on your system OR that it is disabled. To check on that, open the Add-ons page using either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+a
  • "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Plugins. On the right side, look for "Shockwave Flash" -- it might be all the way at the bottom. If it has a "Never Activate" status, try changing it to either "Always Activate" or "Ask to Activate".

Does that work?

If Shockwave Flash is nowhere to be found on the Plugins panel of the Add-ons page, let us know and we can describe next steps for addressing that.


Could you also check for possible multiple Flash versions. Type or paste about:plugins in the address bar and press Enter to load that internal page. Here you can use Find (Ctrl+f) to search for npswf which is a unique part of the file name of the Flash plugin. If you have multiple versions, this could cause issues and it's recommended to clean out the old ones. I'll give you the steps if needed.


About "Ask to Activate"

With this setting, when you visit a site that wants to use Flash, you should see a notification icon in the address bar and usually (but not always) one of the following: a link in a black rectangle in the page or an infobar sliding down between the toolbar area and the page.

The plugin notification icon in the address bar typically looks like a small, dark gray Lego block. When the page wants to use a blocked plugin, the icon turns red to alert you to the concern.

If you see a good reason to use Flash, and the site looks trustworthy, you can go ahead and click the notification icon in the address bar to allow Flash. You can trust the site for the time being or permanently.

But some pages use Flash only for tracking or playing ads, so if you don't see an immediate need for Flash, feel free to ignore the notification! It will just sit there in case you want to use it later.

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Yes, that did the trick. Didn't realize Shockwave was related to Adobe Flash. When all is working Flash Player does not appear in the list. Seems strange. Consider this solved.

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Once upon a time, Shockwave was a famous brand and Flash was the newcomer. Times have changed, but the name of the plugin remained the same, now starting its third decade of confusing users.

(There is a different "Shockwave for Director" plugin that most people do not need for the older kind of media.)