Skip to main content
E
el111
Legend
October 13, 2016
Question

Chrome 54 and Flash PPAPI distribution issue

  • October 13, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 20801 views

We have noticed that the latest Flash Player (23.0.0.185) from 11Oct  is not included as part of the Chrome 54 updater.

This has resulted in a message to user that “Flash plugin is out-of-date please update”.

This links to a rather awkward set of steps where the user needs to go to chrome://components and manually update the plugin.

Is there a misalignment between Chrome and FP PPAPI distribution for the current release?

Or

Will this happen going forward, whereby the user needs to always manually update the Flash Player component?

We are aware of Chrome’s “HTML first” position for Chrome 55 – but unable to find concrete plans as to what exactly this means in terms of messaging and exact user interaction.

This Chrome 54 issue was not expected.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    jeromiec83223024
    jeromiec83223024
    Inspiring
    October 13, 2016

    Chrome is rolling out some optimizations to the Chrome install process, whereby the Flash Player component will automatically be installed a few minutes after the initial Chrome installation.  This functionality does not seem to be working quite perfectly yet on a small subset of systems, and our expectation is that it would not impact the component updater under normal circumstances.  We work closely with the Chrome team, and are actively providing feedback where issues arise.  We've raised your issue with Google, and expect this to be smoothed out in the near future.

    Thanks!

      C
      CalebWCPSS
      Participant
      October 18, 2016

      Are there any updates to this issue?  We're currently sitting on 50,000+ computers that are not updating from 23.0.0.166 to 23.0.0.185.  Manually deleting the C:\Users\<userid>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\PepperFlash directory and relaunching Chrome updates Flash to 23.0.0.185, but it never updates on its own now that it isn't included in the Chrome 54 updater.  Going to chrome://components and clicking the 'Check for updates' button under Adobe Flash Player, I can see it download the update, but it never applies until the PepperFlash directory in each user's AppData is completely deleted.

      Uninstalling/reinstalling Chrome does not remove this user data. 

      jeromiec83223024
      jeromiec83223024
      Inspiring
      October 18, 2016

      Ultimately, this is an issue with Chrome.  It's their updater and distribution mechanism.  Effectively, we're just providing a DLL to Google.  The rest of it is Chrome.  We're relaying the complaints to Google, but a bug would be more effective in terms of facilitating tracking and follow-up, particularly if this is a pain-point for your organization.

      I would highly recommend filing a Chrome bug with as much detail as possible:

      https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list

      If you want to point me to the bug, I can make sure it gets on the radar.

      I would recommend including a lot of detail about your environment -- how chrome is distributed in your organization, any administrative configurations that are non-default, special environmental considerations (remote user folders, etc.), effective permissions on the files under the problematic path, etc., so that the Chrome team can figure out what's unique about your environment and identify a better approach or workaround.

      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
      Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices