Why can't I install Adobe Flash Player?

Report · Feb 17, 2016

I have spent more than an hour in trying to install Adobe Flash Player, but no matter how many times Adobe thanks me for having installed it, it never appears in my applications. I might add that I have had a computer for more than ten years, so it seems impossible that Adobe Flash is not where it's supposed to be. I know that I tTHOUGHT that I had updated it countless times. I can also say that even though it was not there when I became aware that I was having serious problems, I went through the process of uninstalling it before I attempted to download it again .So that's it. I download it. I turn my browser off and on, and I then make what should be the final click. Result? nothing. No Adobe Flash. I do have Adobe Digital Editions 4.5 app and Adobe Digital Editions app in my applications. Is that relevant? Are they different names for Adobe Flash?

I am running OS 10.11.3. Safari is the browser I am using. I have an iMac (27" late 2013).

Report · Feb 17, 2016

I'm inferring that the installer is running normally, and that you're just not seeing Flash content in Safari after the installation.

If that's the case, this should help:

Enable Flash Player for Safari‌

If it's not, some more clarity would be helpful in giving you a cogent response. A list of useful details follows:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1195540

Report · Feb 17, 2016

I don’t understand what is unclear to you, but here is some more information: OS 10.11.3 (for Mac), Safari 9.0.3; Flash Player Version: I don’t know. Presumably, when you download it, you will be getting the latest version, and that’s what I want.

Other than that, I can only say that I’ve already seen the link you sent me, and I found it to be insufficient. In any event, it didn’t help me.

The problem is that Adobe Flash Player does not appear in my applications after Adobe has thanked me (at least eight times, at this point) for installing it. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that if an app has been successfully installed, it should appear in the applications, and that if it doesn’t appear there, it hasn’t been successfully installed. Am I wrong?

Oh, one last point. I asked if Adobe Digital Editions is another name for Adobe Flash Player. Is it? Oh, one last point: I don’t recall seeing any error messages.

Report · Feb 17, 2016

Adobe Flash Player is not Adobe Digital Editions. Digital Editions is an application for reading digital books.

Flash Player is a browser plug-in, not a standalone application. It lives inside the browser, and is not listed in the Applications folder.

From what you're saying, it sounds like you've successfully installed Flash Player.

Recent versions of Safari have made it more and more difficult to get Flash Player to work as intended, and we see this kind of support request a lot. For Safari, it's not enough to just install Flash on the system, you have to go poke around in the Safari security settings to get browser plug-ins to work.

The settings in Safari are slightly different for MacOS 10.11.3, but they're really close to what's described in the link above. You should definitely confirm the following:

Under Safari > Preferences > Security:

Enable JavaScript is Checked
Internet Plug-Ins is Checked
Under Plug-In Settings:
- You should see Adobe Flash Player in the left-hand pane. This is a good indicator that it's installed.
- Make sure it's checked, and on the right-hand pane, choose When visiting other websites: Always Allow.
- Click Done

If you've installed other extensions to Safari, like ad-blockers or anti-javascript/anti-tracking plugins, they could also be interfering with the website's ability to launch Flash Player. If everything looks good above and this sounds familiar, I'd experiment with disabling those tools.

Hope that helps!

Report · Feb 17, 2016

Okay, thanks. That’s the kind of answer I like. It covered everything, at least I think so. The only thing that might be remaining is AdBlock, but I won’t disable that unless I still can’t do what started all of this Adobe Flash Player business. Now I think I’ve had it all the time. I have to wonder, though, when do I need Adobe Flash Player? Is it ever obvious? Well, maybe that’s not important. Now that I know that it’s installed, I won’t blame it every time I have a computer problem. What brought this all up was my failure to do something, and the technician I talked to said that maybe the absence of Adobe Flash Player was the problem. That’s when I discovered that it wasn’t in the applications, and that’s when I started this hours-long ordeal in an effort to get it installed. What a waste or time. Incidentally, the version I installed is 20.0.0.306. I hope that’s current, because I don’t want to spend one more minute on this.Thanks again for your help.

Warren

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Report · Feb 17, 2016

AdBlock is a regular source of problems (the heuristics for determining what is an ad and what is legitimate content aren't always easy), but you can always disable AdBlock temporarily on a page-by-page basis if you run into something that doesn't work to see if the problem goes away.