Why isn't 31 recognized?

Yeah, I agree with Maria.  It sounds like both Flash Player 22 and 31 are present on the system simultaneously.  We install them in parallel so that you don't have to restart the browser to make the update take effect, but we're supposed to switch the configuration data over to the new version. 

If you haven't rebooted the machine since this started, that's also probably a good idea.  It probably won't fix the problem, but it eliminates a lot of variables that might otherwise be in play when trying to clean things up...

In this instance, it sounds like we were able to install our binaries, but we weren't able to update the relevant configuration file(s).

Uninstalling and reinstalling should clean this up if everything is working fine, but it probably failed because a file was corrupt on disk.

Uninstall Flash Player - Windows:

https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-windows.html

You can then install Flash Player by going here:

https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer

If the problem persists, it's probably a good time to run a disk repair utility.  Before doing that, it's wise to make sure that you have working backups of any critical data.  Disk corruption can be an early indicator of impending hardware failure.  Running a maintenance utility will give it a good workout, and you don't want to push it over the edge before you backup the important stuff.

Check your hard disk for errors - Windows 7:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2641432

At that point, you'll need to do the uninstall/reinstall again, but hopefully that gets you going.

Version 22 is likely the Shockwave plugin, while version 33 will be the Shockwave Flash plugin, both completely different things despite the name clash. What does the FF "about:plugins" page say? I'll bet it doesn't even recognise version 22 of the Shockwave plugin