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felipe_snews
Participating Frequently
August 15, 2017
Question

Flash Player freezes after browser tab change

  • August 15, 2017
  • 9 replies
  • 13023 views

Hi,

I have a web application running on Flash and recently some users are reporting that sometimes when they change the browser tab and then return to the app tab, it doesn't respond to any click.

After some tests, I discovered that the app isn't crashing, because when I click on a button that dispatches a request to the server, the server receives this request, but the button doesn't show visually that is being pressed.

I was able to reproduce the same freeze outside of my app with a single FLVPlayback running a video. But it isn't related to the video component because I can also reproduce by starting some "setInverval()" calls executing something with a really small interval just to simulate something running in the Flash Player.

This link I found on the web can be used as an example: http://www.dhs.state.il.us/accessibility/tests/flash/video.html. In a separated browser window, open this link in a tab and open another empty tab. Keep the Ctrl+TAB keys pressed to keep switching between the two tabs for some time. Usually, when the video is playing, it freezes after a few seconds.

So far I have personally seen this problem happen only in Chrome, but I have been told that the same thing happened in other browsers.

My Chrome version is 60.0.3112.90, running Flash Player 26.0.0.151 (both Windows 10 and OSX Sierra).

I haven't found anyone reporting a problem like this recently. Can you guys give me some help?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    9 replies

    elishag80417505
    elishag80417505
    Participant
    August 14, 2018

    Hi guys,

    I am also having a similar issue (as are others using chrome in my organisation). Flash player freezes (visually) on screen when using Chrome browser until something refreshes it. I have tested in internet explorer and do not have the same issue.

    Let me explain further.

    We have online learning content within flash player that launches a few external links. These external links open in a new tab. When we close that tab and return back to our original content, it is frozen. The mouse moves, but visually, it is completely frozen. Nothing appears to happen if we click on buttons, rollovers and animations don't work etc.

    However - if we scale the browser window or move it, or even open the developer console (anything to 'wake' the browser up essentially), it comes back to life where it should have been.

    To me it seems like it is just the visual image that is freezing - the back end still is all working.

    As an example, if its frozen and i click where a 'next page' button is, the page still seems frozen - but when i wake the browser up again by resizing it - the page refreshes and i am at the next page already (as though it had all worked properly when I clicked on the button - just that the visuals had frozen).

    Here are the tech details for you:

    OS: Windows 10 Professional

    Chrome version: Version 68.0.3440.106 (Official Build) (64-bit)

    Flash Version: 30.0.0.134

    Any help here would be fantastic  jeromiec83223024​

    Thanks,

    jeromiec83223024
    jeromiec83223024
    Inspiring
    August 14, 2018

    Thanks.  I can reproduce this on Win10/Chrome.  I'll get a bug open.

      tufikc12551576
      tufikc12551576
      Participant
      August 10, 2018

      This problem is present in Windows 10 /Chrome Version 68.0.3440.106 (Official Build) (64-bit)

      qLipp
      qLipp
      Participating Frequently
      March 6, 2018

      For anyone stumbling across this and not yet found an answer, this might work for you:    Force a DOM redraw with javascript after detecting visibility changed.

                  document.addEventListener('visibilitychange', function () {

                      // super hAx to trigger a DOM redraw, which will kickstart flash

                      // when it freezes from a tab switch

                      if (!document.hidden) {

                          var flashContainer = document.getElementById("id-of-your-flash-div");

                          flashContainer.style.opacity = 0.99;

                          setTimeout(function() { flashContainer.style.opacity = 1; }, 20);

                      }

                  })

      jeromiec83223024
      jeromiec83223024
      Inspiring
      March 6, 2018

      Is this still happening for you with current versions of Flash Player and Firefox?  We marked the related bug as fixed back in October.

      If it *is* still happening for you, I'd love a link to something that demonstrates it.  I don't want people to need workarounds like this where we can avoid it.

      qLipp
      qLipp
      Participating Frequently
      March 6, 2018

      This is an issue my QA team (and myself) have been "dealing with" for months now, in Chrome.   It is/was intermittent in that only sometimes our game would freeze upon tab switch, but repeatedly hitting ctrl-tab rapidly would 99.999% of the time reproduce the issue.

      What's universally consistent, however, is the remedy:  resizing the window will _always_ bring back the game.  As such, forcing a DOM redraw fixed this problem for us, but i'll admit its a stupid thing we shouldn't have to do hahha.

      try this:  https://play.hdpoker.com/


      Our fix is still in dev so you can see it at the above link for now, until we deploy it.   If you have a Facebook account you can use for testing things, log in with it.   Open up a second tab, then hit ctrl-tab repeatedly really fast to get it to freeze.

      D
      drygu2h
      Participating Frequently
      September 7, 2017

      wmode = gpu helped us in all our cases (in 4 different swfs to be exact ).

      Bnj-Y4uz2A
      Bnj-Y4uz2A
      Participant
      September 20, 2017

      Thanks for this workaround.

      It seems to fix the issue for us as well.

      What could be the side effect of setting wmode='gpu' instead of 'direct' ? different rendering ?

      D
      drygu2h
      Participating Frequently
      August 28, 2017

      I've got the same problem. You can see it here: http://www.taern.com. Just change the tab and all buttons will be disabled. When you will rescale window they are enabled again.

      I can see this problem on all my swfs that are embeded with swfobject and have width/height = 100%.

        D
        drygu2h
        Participating Frequently
        September 6, 2017

        Workaround found on stage3d group:

        set wmode = gpu when embeding swf.

        jeromiec83223024
        jeromiec83223024
        Inspiring
        September 6, 2017

        One of the recent changes to the generally available Firefox versions forces Flash Player into windowless mode.  Requesting GPU mode (or direct) might help in some content instances.  I'd definitely be curious to know if people have success with that.

        I still think this is a cluster of related issues, and that there's more than one discrete cause, but hopefully this does provide relief for some content authors, and helps us to tease out the other cases with unique root causes.

        E
        EvyatarBH
        Participant
        August 23, 2017

        We encounter freezing issues as well -

        Windows 10 Enterprise 64-bit

        Chrome Version 60.0.3112.101 (Official Build) (64-bit) & IE11

        FP 26.0.0.137

        Note that it doesn't take extreme measures to cause an application to freeze, as a simple tab change can cause it.

        Restoring & maximizing Chrome window (which caused FP rendering) made the application responsive again, but this cannot be provided to customers as a workaround, so it is a serious issue for us, which should be fixed ASAP.

        Thanks in advance,

        Evyatar

          F
          felipe_snewsAuthor
          Participating Frequently
          August 17, 2017

          This video demonstrates the Flash Player 26 freezing problem after switching the browser tab. First I show the problem using the Apache Flex demo application, then I show the problem on a pure Flash site.

          jeromiec83223024
          jeromiec83223024
          Inspiring
          August 17, 2017

          Thanks for the detailed report.  I'll get a bug filed shortly.

            A
            Anonymous
            August 20, 2017

            Its not ideal, but I have a partial workaround for Firefox.

            When you go back to a Flash running tab that isn't reacting, pull on the scroll bar on the right hand side of the screen. I have no idea why but it seems to return control to that tab. This doesn't work for streaming video but it does work for Flash games.

            A
            Anonymous
            August 16, 2017

            I had the same flash, flash froze, plugin turned off and everything stopped. The problem was the processor and amount of RAM

            F
            felipe_snewsAuthor
            Participating Frequently
            August 17, 2017

            Thanks for the answer.

            This does not seem to be the problem in my case. I can use the application for hours without a problem, as long as I do not change the browser tab. If I change the tab, it freezes, whether in my application or any other site made in Flash.

            F
            felipe_snewsAuthor
            Participating Frequently
            August 16, 2017

            Today I saw the freeze occur on the user's computer using Firefox. In it, the freeze happened easily with just one single tab switch.

            So I decided to do more tests on another computer and it also happened with ease, just switching the tab once (Firefox and Chrome).

            On both computers, the problem stopped after installing an earlier version of Flash Player (tested with 24 and 25). The problem is in version 26.0.0.151.

            Using this another link its easier to reproduce the freeze:

            Apache Flex® Tour De Flex Component Explorer

            Another thing: on these computers, the application doesn't trigger any action on clicking after the freeze, different of what I said before. I don't know if it is the same problem since it now freezes easier and doesn't respond to clicks.

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