Flash 11.3 doesn’t load video in Firefox

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Some Firefox users on Windows Vista and Windows 7 are experiencing problems when viewing videos in Adobe Flash Player 11.3, released on June 8, 2012. Firefox and/or Flash Player may crash or not load videos using Flash Player, or videos may not display correctly. Adobe and Mozilla are working closely to diagnose and address these issues. In the meantime, Firefox users experiencing problems viewing videos in Flash Player should try the workarounds listed in this help article. We will post an update on this blog once that happens.

Categories: end users, general

71 responses

  1. Cristian

    Thank you so much! I thought I was the only one with this problem, but I can see I’m not.

    In my computer the plug-in of Adobe Flash Player crash almost every time I use Firefox. Of course it happens since I installed 11.3 version.

    I’m waiting the solution. Thanks guys.

    1. amy

      yes y rit i had problem almost 2 weeks icant load youtube video on firefox plz any info

      1. Jim

        It’s fixed!!! I just let real player update itself and it fixed the YouTube,Flash/FireFox problem where FireFox wouldn’t play YouTube, Crackle, or other Flash video.
        I had tried everything. Running FF in safe mode, disabling add ons, updating flash player, re-installing FF, disabling Real Player plugin, nothing worked but this.
        Apparently there was a conflict with Flash, FireFox and RealPlayer which I only use. I assume RealPlayer tries to show itself when it sees a video in the browser and was causing problems at that point. I’m ticked at RealPlayer because it says it will convert video formats but it won’t (Except for older versions like v14.0.4.652, instead it waits till the last step then says ‘upgrade!’ whaoo! NOO! There is lots of FREEware that will convert videos (ie: .flv to mp4, etc) Like HandBrake Download it here-
        http://download.cnet.com/HandBrake/3000-2194_4-10808250.html

        Technical info- Windows 7 64bit
        FireFox- 14.0.1 Funnelcake Jul 2012 mozilla 1.0
        RealPlayer v15.05.109

        1. Imran

          thanks Jim, updating real player fixed the issue. yay !
          finally firefox is fully functional. I moved to chrome for two weeks, but had to use firefox as it has been my default browser for over 6 years now.

          1. Jim

            Great. It worked for you too?

        2. John

          Jim is the Man!!

          I can’t believe this worked but just like Imran, it worked for me too!!

          Updated Real Player and whamo…firefox can now play videos and see flash!

          I know… it makes no sense whatsoever that to fix firefox requires updating real player…but I’m here to tel you it did for me!!

          Nice to be done with Chrome and get back to Firefox.

          Thank You JIM!

  2. Johnson

    I have the same problem after updating to Flash 11.3. I never experienced this before update.

    1. raf

      This is crazy. i always thought firefox prepare things up before running new stuff. Now I’m stuck with chrome and explorer. Improve firefox, improve!

      1. gem

        here here i hate the explorer tooo!!!!!

    2. robert

      had the same problem but its ok now..downgrade your flashplayer..i’ll send the link and choose flashplayer bellow 11.3 i’m using 11.2
      http://www.filehippo.com/download_flashplayer_firefox/12261/

  3. Will

    Yes. Could not figure out why all videos suddenly display a blank dark box. Thought it was just my computer now I see it is thousands of others too. Hopefully an update that fixes the problem is coming soon.

    1. Will

      And I have fixed it by downloading and running the Flash uninstaller, then downloading the fp_11.2.202.233_archive package. I ran the 32 bit installer of Flash 11.2 for Win7 even though I am running 64 bit OS. All is good now. Guess the mistake was agreeing to update Flash when it nagged me. I looked but can not find where to turn off checking for updates so will just have to deal with dismissing the nag screen when it pops up.

      1. William

        To my opinion that’s not a solution for the problem. Of course the crashes only appeared when we installed version 11.3 of Flash with the Sandboxing feature in it. BUT, it also fixed if i am right 7 weaknesses which were present in Flash 11.2. So, going back to 11.2 makes you more vulnerable than you are now with 11.3.
        The problem is the new feature sandboxing in Flash 11.3, not the update itself. It’s not that it won’t play video’s at all, or won’t function (although I sometimes experience problems with sound with 11.3).
        So disabling the Sandboxing feature will solve this problem for now, and still gives you the more security that the new update 11.3 gives you by way of fixed weaknesses which were in 11.2.
        How to disable Sandboxing till Mozilla and Adobe have a solution for the instability problems with Flash 11.3 can be found on this address:
        http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1018071?tstart=0

        1. george

          William, thanks for that tip. I have used many suggestions from other bloggers about what to do with my flash player crashing, and finally this helped. The adobe would not let me open its settings either, and I was lost, till I went to that website you posted. I was able to disable my realplayer and now I can run videos and play facebook games on firefox 13, and adobe 11.3 versions! :)) Life is better..

        2. Sue

          Hi William

          Thanks for your help. I have been trying to sort this problem out for the last few weeks trying loads of suggestions. Yours has finally worked using the website you gave. At last I can listen to my northern soul music and play games again!!!

      2. Dan

        When in the Control Panel, just search for Flash. Then you can disable the updates on the advanced tab

  4. Joe

    We are waiting for the update. In the meantime, we have to use IE, what a shame (

  5. zzzzz

    Crash-stats for new Flash are going through roof by rate of 100′s / hour
    https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/list?signature=F1398665248_____________________________
    from that bug alone https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=763237

    numbers at time of post: 203,365 Crash Reports

  6. Cristian

    I still have the problem with Firefox 13.0.1 (clean install of Firefox and Flash Player).

  7. Bud

    No problems with Chrome

    1. joeybatts

      google chrome is superior.i have uninstalled firefox with no plans for re-installation even if they fix this problem.i am sick and tired of having to download another version followed by installing all the stupid plug-ins.ENOUGH ALREADY.somebody at google does all of this for me and all i have to do is download their latest version of it.everything i liked about firefox chrome has taken and improved upon.it translates pages when they are in a different language.i really enjoy my internet time much more now that i have an efficient browser again.firefox reminds me of internet explorer.useless

      1. ATG

        if there is anything superior then its Opera… definately not chrome, which is basically version of internet “Big Brother” once you use it… only stupid, lazy people that likes to be controlled are using it or people that are not aware of its real purpose ;)

      2. easyrider

        I’m thinking to same. uninstall firefox and never install again. I have this problem for weeks and weeks

  8. Nemanja Ćosović

    I have problems with YouTube. I’m using a HTML5, and almost dont use Flash at all, but the video is extremly choppy.

    As a Firefox user since version 0.x I must say that after version 2.x, I haven’t seen a normal version of Firefox. Everytime is just praying that something doesen’t goes wrong.

    I’m using:
    Intel 2700K, 16 GB RAM, Win7 x64.

    1. joeybatts

      i agree.firefox has gone downhill with each version.it is as useful as internet explorer

  9. Callie

    OMG, glad I’m not the only one….I thought I had done something wrong, now it makes sense!!! I just updated my Adobe Flash Player 11.3 today and now all videos won’t load….for the past hours I have been searching forums as to why my videos suddenly quit working?…I went far as to updating my Firefox and everything I can think of to disabling extensions thinking that will solve the problem….hopefully Firefox will solve this issue b/c this is the only browser I prefer to use over Explorer.

    1. Callie

      i followed thru on the hyperlink “help article” above by doing what Will did and now I’m a happy camper!! My video’s are playing again, thanks soooo much!!!

  10. wibbler

    Utterly hopeless, you’re clearly not testing your releases thoroughly, you were warned by many that if you chose to go down the route of an aggressive release plan this would happen.

    1. Mike

      You’re such an ignorant individual. This problem isn’t related to a Firefox release but a release of Flash.

  11. Mingyi

    I had to downgrade to 11.2 for flash to work. This in fact isn’t the first time a flash update failed to work in Firefox.

    I wonder if it points to a sad conclusion, that Adobe developers are probably exclusively using Chrome in their company to not notice the problem in Firefox. Of course, some said the problem is only for FF on Win7, so maybe they all use Linux – but FF on Linux was way slower than FF on Win7 in some features.

    Anyhow, I love the Memshrink initiative but more needs to be done to stop the slide of FF vs. Chrome, like numerical array sorting performance, a basic requirement; or canvas performance, etc. Addons is the biggest strength of FF vs. Chrome, more needs to be done there.

  12. chris4644

    I tried the very first step (disabling the RealPlayer option), and it worked! I am running 7.

    1. maura0505

      I have been going crazy with this Mozilla/Adobe flash problem for weeks. JUST uninstalled RealPlayer and everything is now running perfect. Thanks

      1. Jack

        I also uninstalled RealPlayer and everything is working correctly. Apparently it got updated on June 6th and that was about the time I started having problems. Thanks for the tip.

  13. David

    OK. So its been a fortnight since the damn thing was released and a week since it was bought up here.Damn glad we weren’t asked to hold our breath.

  14. jim Giddings

    Can anybody explain why IE can show flash videos but Firefox (and Chrome) can’t? I find the prospect of downgrading the flash version daunting. Presumably if I install an older version, Adobe will keep trying to upgrade me to the new one.

    I REALLY don’t want to have to abandon Firefox for IE, but videos are now an essential part of using the Web, and I can’t give that up for a few weeks or months. Now that this has happened it shakes my confidence that Firefox will ever work right again.

    Would it be possible for Adobe to provide a pretend-upgrade install package that reverts us to 11.2 but works without the manual uninstall/install process and is perceived by Adobe as up-to-date?

    My actual problem with flash/firefox has been “jerky” audio that affects both flash video and flash audio. I have been able to load videos and audio podcasts, but they are unlistenable. Also, either the flash process or the firefox project eventually eat up all available memory in my less-than-totally-top-of-the-line computer. At work, where the machine has more memory and cpu speed, I have not experienced the problems as severely.

    I’m in the process of uninstalling realplayer. If that doesn’t work, I guess I’ll try the flash downgrade.

  15. Jon

    Down grade your adobe flash from 11.3 to a lower one instructions are in the firefox support.
    http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/flash-113-doesnt-load-video-firefox

    1. Jon

      Btw it doesn’t have anything to do with realplayer.

  16. Pama

    I unistaled the new Adobe Flash Player 11.3 and instaled back the old one…and its working again

  17. malcolm sayers

    so someone releases a version update of flash which doesnt work with firefox .whats the difference between screwing up a persons computer with a useless update and sending a virus that also naffs someones computer. . do these people have any skills or should they be working in muckdonalds

  18. kingward

    Here’s my solution. I’m going to Chrome until you and Adobe work the problem out. Thanks.

    1. joeybatts

      exactly

  19. Tom with XP

    FireFox 13.0.1 + latest Flash player works seemingly fine with XP … hmmm. W7 & Vista, nope.

  20. Sabine

    Since the recent update of firefox, I find that games on facebook site don’t load up anymore. I managed to resolve that initially with a system restore which got me back to an earlier version of firefox. However 10 days have passed and I am facing the same problem again. I want to play my games! If Adobe flash player is not compatible with this issue Firefox, what are we supposed to do. I am NOT a computer buff!!!!!!! Anyone any solutions out there please!!!???????

  21. Veltro

    Hrm…I’ve tried uninstalling Realplayer and I’ve tried downgrading to flash 10…nothing worked :S. I can see videos on youtube though, but I can’t seem to see videos on wimp.com or livestream.com. Anyone else have this problem?

    1. Veltro

      Oooh! Fixed my problem! For anyone else that is having this problem, go to options, then advanced, pick the general tab and uncheck “use hardware acceleration when available.” See if that works. :)

  22. JUDY

    All of a sudden I lost the ability to run Adobe flash on Mozilla 13 beginning yesterday

    This link helped considerably…http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/flash-113-doesnt-load-video-firefox#os=win&browser=fx13

    The only thing that worked for me though was to Uninstall Mozilla. Reinstall Mozilla.Download Adobe Flash player 11, then uninstall Real Player and reinstall from http://www.real.com …

    THEN it finally worked!
    Hope this helps many of you!!

  23. Mohammad ZeinEddin

    I am also facing the same problem, I tried to uninstall/install firefox and flash many times to the latest versions, but videos still not loading, and a lot of flash objects is not loading, too.!!!

  24. Gabriel

    I suppose Google Chrome will do for now,but fix it.

  25. vi16na13

    TOOK ME A WEEK TO FIGURE IT OUT BUT UNINSTALLED FLASH 11.3 AND INSTALL FLASH 10.3 AND RIGHT AWAY MY PROBLEM WAS SOLVED NOW I CAN PLAY MY FAVORITES VIDEOS AGAIN IN YOU TUBE I’M SO HAPPY!!!<3 ") EASY WAY TO DO IT!

  26. albert mccall

    you guys suck how can you let this happen its an automatic update which forces we the users to download and it ends up not working properly i don’t get it firefox is a good pc tool but stuff like this makes me wonder what’s going on.

  27. Fletch

    I’ve tried to be patient, held my breath, but now I’m turning purple.

    Bye bye Firefox, been nice knowing you.

    Hello Chrome, you seem to be much better anyway!

  28. This is BS

    This is another reason why Adobe is one of the worst companies ever. all their updates and for what? no video…..? good fix for your video crash issues, to just disable it. Im a graphic designer and 10 years ago photoshop was fine did everything it had to, fast forward 10 years to cs5 and now you cant do anything like you used to. its all bullshit, They keep adding crap that nobody uses to make a “new” version of their crap, only to make it worse for the buyer. Now with Flash you really do get what you pay for…….Nothing.
    I want to burn down the Adobe Office sooooo bad. I want to pirate copies of CS5 and all of their other convoluted hoop jumping shit software just to give it away. I hate you Adobe, I hope you fall on your ass with moves like these. you make trash and it all breaks eventually. I hope html5 leaves you behind. Flash is for fucking cock suckers. Good job you fucks. I want to nail your nut sack to a stump and push you over. If flash was a woman I would want to watch it get raped to death by rabid gorillas

  29. Yerneh

    Methinks, that Mozilla and Real are having a tiff as a result we are having this problem. When elephants fight, the grass got crushed!

  30. bootyman

    adobe flash player did not work for firefox when i uninstalled the plugin it works just fine till they get it fixed it works for me.

  31. Tom with XP

    Magic? Here it is 30 Jun, and all of the sudden I have motion & sound … ghosts? Is there a fix (did not see one) or is this just random good luck?

  32. datheca

    Although I appreciate the update I can never figure out why software makers do not co-operate with each other and test each update to ensure complete functionality BEFORE releasing updates, ESPECIALLY on the current version of Windows (7) and given the fact that there is widespread usage of both Firefox and Flash. I have had Firefox exceed 1 million bytes in memory before seizing up. Flash player uses little memory. Not a happy camper.

  33. Ant

    What the hell is the problem now?? I can’t load so many video on youtube??

  34. Skit

    Please fix this now? I need firefox browser, chrome is shit.

  35. Audrey

    I uninstalled 11.3 and went back to 11.2 then videos worked fine. This morning Adobe issued an update to fix the problem with Firefox, like a fool I downloaded it. Now I am back to video not playing . Again.

  36. martin

    THESE GUYS SOLVED IT!
    http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/flash-player-113-crash-mozilla.html

    1. Bassman

      While using IE to view the solutions (as Mozilla had crashed again), I clicked on the link and IE crashed! The whole Adobe suite and its contant updating (just shows how badly it’s written in the first place) is affectively virus as someone else rightly pointed out, the sooner this unwanted shite is permanently removed from the web the better.

  37. Tom with XP

    Now, while XP was working OK with this combo, it still works … but it is an older machine and might be the victim of requiring higher RAM to work well than it had. It NOW transmits s-l-o-w-e-r sound than it was before whatever fix was made. Since a fix was in, the higher-RAM & better processor on my W7 platform get sound OK, no problems. I will have to see if it is a general problem, e.g., XP+Chrome get the same s-l-o-w-n-e-s-s, or it is limited to FFox.

  38. sluggy

    I was having the same issues with youtube showing a blank black box.What worked for me was doing a system restore, choosing a date before my problems all started naturally… then I stopped Flash from doing auto update until they fix this problem. So far its been working for a week.

    However I am having difficult with weatherchannel map in motion if anyone has suggestions – I pretty much tried everything on my research for that problem. The map doesn’t work with chrome or IE either. I have windows 7.

  39. Ray

    Please fix it ASAP…

  40. gem

    i thought i was going dolally when most of the graphics on websites i visited either loaded a page within a page or half loaded
    i have faith in firefox and never use anythign else so hurry please and fix it as i hate explorer!

  41. saad

    i can’t play games and see videos on facebook even if i have flash player 11

  42. Chloe

    Thank you … I didn’t want to uninstall Real Player, cuz I use it to download, but I took the suggestion to uninstall the new Flash and then install the older version. Now, Firefox plays the videos just fine … hope they find a fix for the newer version.

  43. sonnkeks

    Back to internet explorer after almost a decade!
    I disliked the new firefox, since your are not able any more to go back several pages at once, which is extremeley important to me (if I am just too stupid to do it: please let me know how). Anyway, I tried the alternatives and did not like them either. But since the last up-date a couple of weeks ago, firefox keeps crashing and no longer displayed pages. I fugured out a couple of the problems by now (find plug-in information, up-dated them), but still it does not work properly. Internet explorer has proven itself in the last weeks to do the job faultlessly and I even found an ad-block extension (nor working as good as on firefox). Next step will be to give Safari a more closer look. But Firefox is pretty much dead to me, it’s been nothing but anoying for over a year.
    P.S. forgive my English, I am German.

  44. Paul

    Finally rectified the problem by uninstalling flash 11 and reinstalling flash 10. Wtf was wrong with it in the first place?! 2 weeks of a complete pain in the arse finally ended.

    You know where I come from we have a saying: if it aint broke don’t effing fix it.

  45. Alquiler yates Ibiza

    I managed to resolve that initially with a system restore which got me back to an earlier version of firefox. However 10 days have passed and I am facing the same problem again. I want to play my games! If Adobe flash player is not compatible with this issue Firefox, what are we supposed to do.

  46. Shaun Mitchell

    I cant watch videos on youtube >.< firefox was working yesterday, August 4th, and my browser started freezing and struggling to change tabs, I was on tumblr and youtube…thats it and it froze, so i closed the browser and restarted my labtop, not a mac, and tried to watch videos but All i get is a blank black screen saying the video is not availible or something.

    I downloaded flashplayer since firefix said I was missing a plug in i download it and halfway as it was downloading it, it didnt finish and said i already had it…if thats the case i dont know what happened..