how to allow flash player on firefox to always activate by default
So while browsing the internet and watching videos flash became unresponsive and I stopped it and sent the crash report. When I refreshed the videos to allow them to buffer again I was prompted to allow flash (shock-wave player) to run. I never changed the setting to ask to activate before and I was done for me without my consent. When I tried to change that setting back to always activate, the option was greyed out so I am unable to actually chose this option and continue with my day. I would very much like to not have to deal with this since in my school flash is heavily used and this has become a very large annoyance that I would like to have rectified. Otherwise I'll be forced to stop using Firefox as this is too much of an extra hassle to have to deal with. Also when Updated to the latest version of flash player it did not rectify the issue.
Chosen solution
Due to a confessed vulnerability in Adobe's current version (https://helpx.adobe.com/security/prod.../apsa15-04.html), Mozilla has soft-blocked the latest version of the Shockwave Flash plugin. Therefore, you need to activate it on sites you trust to use it instead of being able to set Firefox to let all sites use Flash automatically.
If you are not accustomed to using the "Ask to Activate" feature for a plugin, here's what to expect:
When you visit a site that wants to use the Flash, you should see a notification icon in the address bar and 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.
If you see a good reason to use Flash, and the site looks trustworthy, you can go ahead and click the Lego-like icon in the address bar to allow Flash. Your choice: for the current usage, or permanent.
But the page might be using Flash only for tracking or playing a video ad. 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 it later.
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Chosen Solution
Due to a confessed vulnerability in Adobe's current version (https://helpx.adobe.com/security/prod.../apsa15-04.html), Mozilla has soft-blocked the latest version of the Shockwave Flash plugin. Therefore, you need to activate it on sites you trust to use it instead of being able to set Firefox to let all sites use Flash automatically.
If you are not accustomed to using the "Ask to Activate" feature for a plugin, here's what to expect:
When you visit a site that wants to use the Flash, you should see a notification icon in the address bar and 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.
If you see a good reason to use Flash, and the site looks trustworthy, you can go ahead and click the Lego-like icon in the address bar to allow Flash. Your choice: for the current usage, or permanent.
But the page might be using Flash only for tracking or playing a video ad. 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 it later.
How much longer before Adobe rectify the vulnerability in the current Flash version? Days? Weeks? Months?
Meaty0 said
How much longer before Adobe rectify the vulnerability in the current Flash version? Days? Weeks? Months?
They have Flash player updates today for Windows and Mac OSX but not for Linux yet. https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html
See also:
- bug 1182751 - (CVE-2015-5122) Blocklist vulnerable versions of Flash Player plugin (18.0.0.203 and lower)
Please do not comment in bug reports
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html
firefox sucks. if i dont give a .... about being hacked that should be up to me. stop changing .... on my computer and telling me "its for the best" or " its for your own good" .... you. I have had nothing but hassles from firefox and the way they handle flash. I can almost never get videos to play.
Modified by James
Hi fred1234, are you still in the Land of Smiles?
The current version of Flash can be set to Always Activate. The download is always available here:
https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html
In the first table, look for the download for "plugin-based browsers" and you can use either the EXE or MSI installer. Make sure to close any tabs using Flash (or exit Firefox) while running the installer so that old files can be removed.
If you cannot get videos to play even after activating Flash, please start a new question about that and give examples of problem sites because the issue may be the built-in HTML5 player rather than a plugin. That seems especially likely if you are still using Windows XP; special trickery may be required.