Adobe Shockwave Flash is the plug-in that allows us to play videos on browsers. However, being an add-on feature, the instances of it crashing are fairly common. If you have experienced such a failure, we have solutions on how to solve Shockwave crashing problems in Google Chrome as well as Mozilla Firefox.
Did You Know?
Shockwave plug-in was first developed and released by Macromedia in 1995. It was only in 2005 that Adobe acquired the service.
Adobe Flash Player crashes are not new to Internet users. Quite often, while you are enjoying your favorite video on YouTube, suddenly a notification pops up which indicates the failure of the player. Even though you have recently updated the player, this catastrophic situation can still occur. If you disable the plug-in, you may not be able to watch all the YouTube videos! We, at Buzzle, have put forth a few solutions for fixing such problems.
Check for Conflicts in Chrome
Google Chrome is most susceptible to Flash Player crashes. The main reason for this is the internal Flash installation pattern of the browser. While Firefox directly installs the player from the host system, Chrome does the same via its internal installation process. This means, the browser will have two copies of the same file. If the internal Flash installation is updated, there is no issue, but if it isn’t, the player crashes. To avoid this situation, you need to disable one of the two files from your system.
First type chrome://plugins in the address bar, once you run the Google Chrome browser. You will see a page where all the plug-ins are listed.
Once you scroll down, you will see a Flash entry. Here, if you see Flash (2 files) entry, you have found the root cause of the problem. In the right hand corner of the page, you can see the + Details option. Click on it.
Upon clicking Details, both versions of the Shockwave Flash Player will open. The open which has AppData or Application in its path, is the internal installation one, while the other is installed from the host’s system. You can disable any one of the entry, to resolve the problem.
Make it On-demand Player in Chrome
If you are not too keen on disabling the installation options, you can make the player installation optional. Whenever, the browser will come across any such content, it will ask for your permission to install the player. This will save you the task of disabling and enabling the installation paths, every time you wish to use the player.
Type chrome://settings in the address window of the Chrome browser and hit Enter. You will be redirected to the Settings page with lots of options.
In the Settings page, scroll down and click on the Show Advanced Settings option.
In the Advanced settings page, scroll to the Privacy section. Here, click on the Content Settings option.
In the Content settings page, under the Plug-ins tab, select the Click to play option. Thus, whenever you wish to watch any video on YouTube, you can enable the plug-in temporarily. This will save you of all the Flash player crashes that take place in Chrome!
On-demand Activation in Firefox
Though Shockwave Flash Player crashes are not common to the Mozilla Firefox platform, there are other problems that occur due to the plug-in. The Flash plug-in is enabled by default in Firefox, which means, all those flash ads, game offers, videos, etc., keep on popping up while you are surfing the net. This may reduce the efficiency of the browser. Thus, you can set an on-demand option.
Launch Firefox, and click on the Tools option in the taskbar. In the drop-down that appears, click on the Add-ons option.
Then, click on Plugins in the left sidebar. In the list that appears, locate the Shockwave Flash option. If you see an Update Now message, update the player right away.
Once you are done with updating the plug-in, you need to change the Always Activate option to Ask to Activate, in the drop-down menu on the left of the screen.
If none of the above methods work for you, you need to reinstall the plug-in from the Adobe website. In case the plug-in works fine in one browser and isn’t working in the other, you need to reinstall the browser.