SWF files re-downloading themselves when attempting to play them

Report · Dec 14, 2016

WIndows 10 Home

Version 1607

OS build 14393.447

64-bit

Google Chrome Canary

Version 57.0.2951.1 canary SyzyASan

Hey everyone Im having an issue that I seem to be unable to resolve. Anytime I download an swf. file and try to play it locally the swf. file will initially open up whichever web browser I'm using (this issue persists across every browser I have tried, Google Canary just happens to be the one I use regularly), and it opens a page just fine and seems like it will start to play properly, but then before the page actually loads and plays the swf. it reverts back to a blank tab on the browser and downloads? copies? the swf. and I end up with "Example.swf(1)" and it repeats (2), (3), and so forth. No error message or anything appears during this process. This has so far happened with every single locally saved swf. file I have attempted to play, on every single browser. swf. files played directly from a web page (not locally saved) seem to work just fine. I have already tried uninstalling and reinstalling flash as well as all applicable troubleshooting solutions provided by Adobe for Flash Player.

Additionally there is nothing I did to my computer (i.e. downloading programs, uninstalling programs, modifying application files, etc) before this issue started happening that was particularly memorable beyond regular use (i.e. web browsing, typing up documents on Microsoft word, browsing, viewing, and editing already existing pictures or word files, etc.).

If anyone can provide a solution to this problem or point me in the right direction I would be extremely grateful

Report · Dec 14, 2016

Hi Bryan,

Please share the link to the webpage where you are facing this problem .

-Vivek

Report · Dec 15, 2016

Hey Vivek,

I'm really sorry if I made it sound like this issue was occurring on an online website. SWF files used directly from an online webpages work just fine for me(e.g. I google search swf games, find a website, and play the SWF game directly from the internet). I am only experiencing this issue with locally saved SWF files(e.g. i google SWF games, find a website, download SWF from the website to my desktop, then attempt to play the game from the locally saved desktop file).

I will still happily update the question with a link to an SWF I downloaded that is giving me this issue, However the exact file seems to not matter as I am experiencing this issue with any and all SWF files I have tried saving locally.

Sincerely,

Bryan

Report · Dec 16, 2016

For what it's worth, I ran into this today when I tried to drag a Word file into Chrome (I thought I was dragging it into an upload box, but I was on the wrong tab). It just saved it back out to my Downloads folder like you describe. That kind of says to me that Chrome doesn't know what to do with a .SWF file in your installation.

Does Flash Player actually work when you're browsing websites now? This simple animation site is my go-to test, just because there's no complexity: http://www.homestarrunner.com/

Report · Dec 15, 2016

Hi,

This usually happens when you don't have flash player installed on your browser. If you can check that the Flash Player is installed through this link Flash Player Help

Also, please share the swf file you are trying to run locally.

Thanks!

Report · Dec 15, 2016

Hey Amrita, I have actually un-installed, then re-downloaded Adobe Flash Player three times just to ensure that Adobe Flash wasn't downloaded incorrectly. Also I would be happy to provide a link to where you can download the swf. file I am trying to play locally however I don't think that will help as I am experiencing this issue with all swf. files I have tried to run, unless I'm running the swf. file directly from an online website (not locally saved).

I will update the question to provide a link to the swf. file in a bit.

Report · Dec 15, 2016

Okay, I spent some time this afternoon playing around with this on my Win10 machine. I'm not able to reproduce the problem you're describing in Canary in either the generally available Chrome release, or in today's Canary version; however, Google runs experiments on subsets of the population, so we may not have the same Canary.

I am able to drag a SWF into Chrome on Win10, but the first time, Plug-In Power Saver stops the bare SWF from playing. If you refresh the tab, then it plays. This seems to be required each time you drag the SWF into Chrome.

I'd be curious to know if this is a problem with a specific SWF, or all SWFs. (I grabbed welcome.swf off of homestarrunner.com because it's a simple animation thing)

If it *is* all SWFs, I'd recommend that you file a bug over at crbug.com with your details, so that Google can investigate and resolve it before it goes live. Since I can't reproduce it, providing them information about my config isn't going to do a lot of good.

For the record, IE should let you play a local SWF, but dragging a SWF into Edge will just cause it to respawn.

Also, we've recently restricted the ability for local SWFs to read from the local operating system by default. If the SWF requires other local assets in order to run, you'll need to check out the section titled "Disabling local-with-filesystem access in Flash Player by default" for a workaround.

Release Notes Flash Player 23 AIR 23