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In Firefox 50.0.2 I can't disable flashplayer anymore. How do I disable flash so it aks to be activated wen needed.

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  • 4 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Guido64

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Since Firefox 5.0 I think i can't disable plashplayer anymore. The setting is still set to "ask to activate" but wen I enter a site with flash content it is played right away it doesn't ask anymore.

How do I fix this? So Flash is not started automatically anymore?

Since Firefox 5.0 I think i can't disable plashplayer anymore. The setting is still set to "ask to activate" but wen I enter a site with flash content it is played right away it doesn't ask anymore. How do I fix this? So Flash is not started automatically anymore?
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

Also -- you may already be aware of this but just in case -- many sites now use Firefox's built-in HTML5 video player, so it might not be a Flash issue. Usually you can distinguish by right-clicking the player and checking the context menu. Flash's menu nearly always is short and mentions Flash somewhere.

The HTML5 video player doesn't have the same Ask to Activate permission setting, but there are some things you can do:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste media*play and pause while the list is filtered

(3) To delay media from auto-starting in background tabs, I suggest: double-click the media.block-play-until-visible preference to switch the value from false to true

(4) To prevent media from auto-starting in any tabs: double-click the media.autoplay.enabled preference to switch the value from true to false -- this can cause some issues:

  • On some sites there is a strange side effect where Firefox starts buffering the video and blocks playback without changing the pause button back into a play button. So on those sites, when you do want to start the video, you have to click twice.
  • Some sites will assume you can't play HTML5 video and their player will just fail.
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All Replies (5)

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Possibly this is because you are allowing Firefox to remember the setting for the site, so that when you visit a site a 2nd time FlashPlayer is activated. That can be changed for each individual domain by using the page-info button to navigate to the permissions (see lower down in this post).

 but wen I enter a site with flash content it is played right away 
 it doesn't ask anymore. 

I tested to check FlashPlayer was behaving as expected using http://www.bbc.co.uk/news and was interested to discover that now supports video apparently without the FlashPlayer plugin being used so is it either using HTML5 or a native embedded swf player.

Check with the Adobe Test page

I had not noticed before but the setting per site now seems to take precedence over the Plugin's settings in about:addons If I set Flash Player to never activate in about:addons It will still activate from a webpage such as adobe's page, if that is set to play.

Note these permissions may be checked from each individual domain's webpage's page info button on the left of the addressbar.

If you renamed permissions.sqlite whilst Firefox was closed Firefox would regenerate a file on restarting that would have default values. However you would have other changes, a better solution would be to edit the database itself to reset specific permissions.


P.S. Click on the Lego Brick icon on the left of the addressbar between the (i) button and the URL to see the FlashPLayer status.

Modified by John99

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Chosen Solution

Also -- you may already be aware of this but just in case -- many sites now use Firefox's built-in HTML5 video player, so it might not be a Flash issue. Usually you can distinguish by right-clicking the player and checking the context menu. Flash's menu nearly always is short and mentions Flash somewhere.

The HTML5 video player doesn't have the same Ask to Activate permission setting, but there are some things you can do:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste media*play and pause while the list is filtered

(3) To delay media from auto-starting in background tabs, I suggest: double-click the media.block-play-until-visible preference to switch the value from false to true

(4) To prevent media from auto-starting in any tabs: double-click the media.autoplay.enabled preference to switch the value from true to false -- this can cause some issues:

  • On some sites there is a strange side effect where Firefox starts buffering the video and blocks playback without changing the pause button back into a play button. So on those sites, when you do want to start the video, you have to click twice.
  • Some sites will assume you can't play HTML5 video and their player will just fail.
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Hello John99 and jscher2000,

You were right the newest version of Firefox remember your choices if you allow flash or not. i don't want that i want to be asked everytime because one time i do need the flash player another time i don't. Since i don't trust flash i only want to run it wen absolutly needed.

I know about HTML5 player and right click to discover of its flash or not ;)

The behavior of the browser changed in the last new versions i geus zo i have to get to use to it. also other plugin have the same behavior i don't want always use surten plugins if i not need them i ant to be asked for it everytime.

I'm going to figure out how to set it so that it is nog saved anymore wen i do allow flash. I want the next time te be asked again. If you know how to configure this please let me know.

Thank you guys for clearing this up. I thought it was a bug in Firefox but it is not.

Modified by Guido64

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The "Allow Now" should forget after a while. I don't know how long "a while" is because I don't use a lot of sites that use Flash. If you want to have more control after clicking "Allow Now", try the following extension:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/click-to-play-per-element/

I haven't tested it in a while but it might do what you want.

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Ow yes I see what you mean allow now or allow forever. Why didn´t i see that ;)

Thank you again, problem totaly solved now ;)