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I have to reinstall the flash player everytime I reboot

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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Once again I'm having trouble with the flash plugin. Here's my previous question: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/979513?esab=a&s=&r=0&as=s I had thought I found a way to keep flash from bugging up again by simply going back to an old version and waiting for another update. Unfortunately even that isn't working any more. Now every time I reboot my system the flash player plugin no longer works. It's their on the list and it says it's active. I've updated to the newest one and I've check to see if it's in conflict with any of the other plugins, it's not. I've uninstalled and reinstall both old and new versions but nothing seems to stick now. I may like Firefox's set up better but this is getting really annoying.

Once again I'm having trouble with the flash plugin. Here's my previous question: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/979513?esab=a&s=&r=0&as=s I had thought I found a way to keep flash from bugging up again by simply going back to an old version and waiting for another update. Unfortunately even that isn't working any more. Now every time I reboot my system the flash player plugin no longer works. It's their on the list and it says it's active. I've updated to the newest one and I've check to see if it's in conflict with any of the other plugins, it's not. I've uninstalled and reinstall both old and new versions but nothing seems to stick now. I may like Firefox's set up better but this is getting really annoying.

All Replies (11)

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If possible, please try a Windows system restore. (More Details)

Please remember to backup any important information located on your computer to an external device (ie. USB).


If this does not solve the issue, please consider contacting the Adobe support team for additional assistance.

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Note that using System Restore can cause your Firefox installation to get corrupted because not all files are restored (only files in a white-list), so be cautious with using System Restore.

  • You may lose data in the Firefox profile folder like .js and .ini files.
  • You may need to (re)install software that was affected.

In case you need to reinstall Firefox then you need to delete the Firefox program folder before reinstalling to make sure that all files get replaced.


Did you try to uninstall and reinstall Flash?

You can uninstall the current Flash player version and (re)install the latest Flash version.

You can find the latest Flash player versions for Firefox on this page.

Which security software (firewall, anti-virus) do you have?

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System restore is out of the question. I don't have a back up and I'd loose too many things in the process. Besides that, it's just the flash player plugin on firefox, not my entire computer. Chrome runs videos just fine and I might end up switching browsers if this persists.

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I can understand why you wouldn't want to do a system restore.
Also, please note that Chrome has its own built-in version of Flash Player. This is most likely why it is working when Firefox does work.

When you shutdown your computer, do you turn it off via the Windows shutdown button in the start menu?

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Okay, do you know why both seamonkey and opera both have flash working as well? Firefox seems to be the only one that's having these issues consistently. I've also noticed that I need to do a manual install of flash rather than use the firefox plugin updater.

And yes I do use the start menu shut down.

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Can you please try deleting the pluginreg.dat folder from your Firefox profile folder?

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Flash 11 runs a task at Windows startup to check for updates. I wonder whether there is a problem with that process? You could try disabling that updater using a startup management tool like Microsoft's AutoRuns:

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Also, which of these is the best characterization of the problem you experience after restarting Windows:

(1) Shockwave Flash is disabled on the Add-ons page (in the grayed out section at the bottom, set to "Never Activate")

(2) Shockwave Flash is missing from the Add-ons page

In case of #2, could you confirm the DLL is present in its default location:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash => NPSWF32_11_9_900_170.dll

Firefox finds the DLL from a registry entry by performing a registry scan, and the results are stored in the pluginreg.dat file mentioned by ComputerWhiz.

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How is the location of the Flash plugin reported on the about:plugins page?

You can find the installation path of all plugins on the about:plugins page.

I don't know if the current SeaMonkey version already shows the paths to plugins on the about:plugins page, but you can check that as well and otherwise check the file path in the pluginreg.dat files.

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How/where do I access the firefox profile folder?

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You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)