Flash Player install hangs at 95%, MacOSX 10.9 (Mavericks)

Report · Nov 21, 2013

I have followed all instructions regarding completely uninstalling Flash Player. I have followed instructions regarding a "Clean" reinstall of FP. I have tried installing FP 10 for Mac instead of FP 11. I have created a new user account and have tried installing FP. ALL attempts have the same result - Flash Player gets to 95% and then just hangs forever.

I should mention that this issue first arose after a clean install of MacOS 10.9 on a new hard drive, with old user data migrated over from old hard drive following best practices, etc. Is there an install log I can send to someone for clues as to what is causing the install failure?

Report · Nov 21, 2013

"Clean install" fails at 95%?

Have you done a Spotlight search for Flash Player.plugin, and trashed EVERYTHING?

Report · Nov 21, 2013

I re-did the entire uninstall/clean reinstall procedure, including spotlight searches for virtually any file that included "flash" "player" in the title, deleted everything, rebooted, checked again that all caches, plugins, managers, etc. that had anything to do with Flash Player were deleted... then again mounted the following file:

install_flash_player_11_osx.dmg

which came from:

http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/licensing/mac /install_flash_player_11_osx....

and tried the installation again -- same result - hangs at 95%. I was about to "hang" myself, when I remembered that some folks had had luck extracting the "Adobe Flash Player.pkg" file from the installer and running just that installer. I realized I had tried this before with the Flash Player installer downloaded by going to adobe.com --> downloads --> Flash Player, etc., but never could find that .pkg in the downloaded and mounted .dmg file. However, it ocurred to me that I hadn't looked for the file in the stand-alone installer mentioned above. Sure enough, it was there, I ran it -- Flash Player installed in a snap and after probably at least 5-6 hours of wrestling with this issue I had success.

Here's what I did:

1. Launched the .dmg file downloaded and referenced above

2. The mounted volume contains the folder "Install Adobe Flash Player.app". I did a right-click on the app and chose "Show Package Contents"

3. I went to: Contents -> Resources and found the file "Adobe Flash Player.pkg"

4. I held the option key down and dragged to create a copy on my desktop.

5. I double-clicked on the above file on my desktop and then just followed the prompts to successfully install Flash Player.

It seems to me that this is an Adobe problem that they need to fix.

Report · Nov 22, 2013

"It seems to me that this is an Adobe problem that they need to fix."

You can submit a bug report here: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform but I can assure you with a more than reasonable expectation, it will not get a response, unless tens of thousands of others are reporting the same thing which, based on what I've seen here... they're not.

Here's the thing: in almost nine years here (under seven different accounts), I can count the number of times someone has had to "extract a package from an installer" on my own two hands, so it's NOT something Adobe will likely look into fixing because it's not in the installer, but rather something on your particular system, that necessitated the resort to "digging into" the installer. The VAST majority of people can and do, install without having to do that.

I know you just did a fresh install of Mavericks, but if you hit the Apple forums, you'll see literally hundreds of threads with thousands of posts, where people have done the exact same, and their troubles never seem to end. I have my own "quirks" with Mavericks, the most annoying of which is the "15-30 second lag" when browsing to find a file for editing or uploading, which I didn't have with Mt. Lion. The "timer" just spins and spins until finally I can see the files in the folder I was trying to access nearly half a minute ago... that I was just in, not more than a minute earlier. It does it every time. But...

I have a late 2012 Mini (Core i5 with 16Gb RAM) which came with OS 10.8.3, and I installed Flash Player per the clean install instructions, as I've done since I had my G5 iMac with "Tiger" on it. Each update since I got my Mini has been done as a "clean install". I upgraded to Mavericks the morning it was made available, and have done two "clean installs" of Flash Player since. Not once have I had an install "hang" and not finish. That includes Reader, AIR, Flash Player, Shockwave, Adobe CS5.5 Master Collection (17 apps), and CS6 Master Collection (16 apps).

In fact, the ONLY time I've "extracted a package from an installer" with this system was to pull iWeb 09 out of the iLife 11 installer, because iLife 11 doesn't come with it, and I wanted to do some testing for troubleshoots in the Apple Forums, and I didn't want to replace iLife 11 with 09 just to do that.

Report · Dec 13, 2013

I have the same problem; and if you do a Google search, you will find plenty of people who share the misery. You state:

I can assure you with a more than reasonable expectation, it will not get a response, unless tens of thousands of others are reporting the same thing which, based on what I've seen here... they're not.

I have hardly ever seen any bug in any software reported by "tens of thousands of people"; and my first computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80. Most people do not even have the technical understanding to know of the existence of this forum, let alone to find this forum, join it, and ask about the problem with their software. Instead, they think that "there's something wrong with the computer. This [feature] doesn't work anymore"; and they just avoid using the feature.

Report · Feb 26, 2014

thanks...the .pkg approach worked for me.

BTW, I'm replying to note that I'm on Snow Leopard, so this isn't a new problem (and Google shows that!)

I'd done the full uninstall, search (command line, via "find /") and had deleted EVERY file related to "Flash Player" ... and rebooted, and had no luck until trying The_DataDude's approach.

To Mike M: I upgraded from Mavericks to Snow Leopard, and my machine's faster and more stable , also: you might find some hangs are due to external USB drives spinning up (I've seen many commands/apps that have no reason to be looking at external drives hang because of that! (They're probably doing something that causes the OS to interrogate the status of every mounted file system.))

Report · Feb 26, 2014

sielers wrote:
To Mike M: I upgraded from Mavericks to Snow Leopard, and my machine's faster and more stable , also: you might find some hangs are due to external USB drives spinning up (I've seen many commands/apps that have no reason to be looking at external drives hang because of that! (They're probably doing something that causes the OS to interrogate the status of every mounted file system.))

Mavericks = OS 10.9.2 max (Released October 2013)

Snow Leopard = OS 10.6.8 max (released October 2009)

That's a DOWNGRADE by any imaginable measure. It's like saying "I upgraded from a Lexus to a Ford Escort". Your machine is probably faster and more stable with an older OS because it can't handle anything newer. Not the case for most people.

And...

Since Flash Player installs ONLY to the:

Mac HD/Library/Internet Plug-ins folder

Mac HD/Library/PreferencePanes folder and

Mac HD/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Flash Player Install Manager folder... External and USB drives have nothing to do with it... NOTHING. The installer ISN'T written to examine external drives for installation. I have 4Tb of external drives with NINE OS builds on them (5 Windows and 4 Mac OS X), and I've never seen a Flash Installer... even the COCOA installer... check an external drive for installation.

Report · Feb 26, 2014

Mike M: you might want to re-read your post with a view to understanding why you used the tone you did. The rest of this post corrects your errors.

Here's the directories ("folders") that Flash Player has caused to be created on my Mac:

/Applications/Adobe/Flash Player/

/Applications/Adobe/Flash Player/AddIns/

/Applications/Adobe/Flash Player/AddIns/airappinstaller/

/Applications/Utilities/Adobe Application Manager/core/Adobe Application Manager.app/Contents/Frameworks/adbeapecore.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/Flash Player.plugin

/Applications/Utilities/Adobe Flash Player Install Manager.app/

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Flash Player Install Manager/

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/

/Library/PreferencePanes/Flash Player.prefPane/

/Users/sieler/Library/Caches/Adobe/Flash Player/

/Users/sieler/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/

/private/var/root/Library/Caches/Adobe/Flash Player/

Note that I'm not claiming that the current version, or the one before that, or the one before that, etc., creates all those folders. And, I'm not interested in researching what folders 12.1 will create. However, the above is simple proof that your "installs ONLY to" is wrong or overly simplistic. (How could it be just the latter? If FP installs to a small number of directories and then creates more when it's run ... that would satisfy the letter of "installs ONLY to" and yet still explain why there are more than three directories). (Of course, by "directories" I'm excluding the sub-directories ... no need to be uselessly detailed here.)

As for upgrade ... sheesh, can't you tell a bit of sarcasm or tongue-in-cheek? But, it's true ... for me on my Macbook Pro (late 2008), each release after Snow Leopard slowed it down a bit more, and decreased reliability. You want to watch out for absolutes like "by any imaginable measure". In general (note the lack of an absolute), newer releases of operating systems do more things, so they tend to slow down. Yes, efforts are often made to shorten some code paths, but they aren't always successful on 100% of the machines out there. I've been writing, modifying, and using operating systems for over 45 years

A simple google search would show that I'm hardly to first to use "upgrade" to describe moving from Mavericks (or Mountain Lion or Lion) to Snow Leopard. SL is Apple's XP. (Think about it: XP, Vista, Win 7, Win 8, Win 8.1 ... quite a lot of parallels with SL, L, ML, Mav.)

I mentioned the "upgrade" only to share your pain: *like you*, I've had issues with Mavericks. They might, or might not, be the same set of issues. In my case, I had a solution that works for me. And, I charitably suggested one thing that might affect you. I've certainly seen it affect many Mac users. Note, please, that a simple reading of my post makes it clear that my reference to USB drives had absolutely nothing to do with any Flash Player uninstall problems. I mentioned the drives because having them mounted can cause visible delays in some operations. You were encountering visible delays. Hmm...perhaps the two are related? That's why I mentioned it, an an effort to help you by sharing knowledge.

BTW, I run Mavericks in a VM on SL because I need to use an Xcode version that won't run on SL.

It occurs to me, belatedly, that your too-short list of directories could be the result of relying on Spotlight or "locate". As delivered on most Macs, both of those features are configured in a manner that will miss a surprisingly large number of directories and files. A simple method of finding essentially everything is: (as root): open a Terminal window, and do:

find / -print > /tmp/allfiles

My Mac does a modified version of that every day at 2 AM.

(add "-type f" to exclude directories ... and you *don't* want a Time Machine volume mounted during this operation (or, explore how to tell "find" how to exclude the TM volume!)

Report · Feb 26, 2014

Quite the comprehensive list... but...

Point out ONE (just one) of those locations you named that's on an external drive or ANYWHERE other than your MaC HD VOLUME.... You can't, because Flash Player doesn't install to external drives. So that can't hang up an installation.

As to the rest of it... I got my late 2012 Mini with 10.8.3, and it was twice as fast as my mid 2009 MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard. Mavericks didn't slow it any at all, but then I have a Corei5 with 16Gb RAM. Your system must be pretty sub-par. That's all I'm going to say.

Report · Feb 27, 2014

Re "Point out ONE (just one) ..."

Sigh.

Just re-read the above, you'll see why.

Ok, I'll say it anyway: there's no correlation, no relationship, between Flash Player and USB drives in anything I wrote. I even pointed it out, quite clearly. There was no claim of any kind, whatsoever, that the FP install hang was in any way, shape, or form affected by USB drives. The sole mention of USB drives was in an aside, to explain to you (and other readers) why a Mac user might notice hangs (of 10 to 30 seconds or so) from time to time. That's it. That simple. Why mention it? Because *you* brought it up first.

BTW, you also can't determine that none of the directories I mentioned aren't on USB drives

Sure...they normally aren't. Sure ... they probably should never be. Sure ... they aren't (on my system). But, sure ... they *can* be, through the magic of symbolic links ("man ln" in Terminal).

Also BTW, I'm considering upgrading my late 2008 Macbook Pro by doubling the memory. The very useful Mactracker app alerted me to the fact that one can now put 8 GB in it, rather than Apple's documented 4 GB. http://mactracker.ca ... highly recommended.

Report · Feb 27, 2014

BTW, you also can't determine that none of the directories I mentioned aren't on USB drives

See the locations you listed?

/Applications/Adobe/Flash Player/

/Applications/Adobe/Flash Player/AddIns/

/Applications/Adobe/Flash Player/AddIns/airappinstaller/

/Applications/Utilities/Adobe Application Manager/core/Adobe Application Manager.app/Contents/Frameworks/adbeapecore.framework/Versions/A/Libr aries/Flash Player.plugin

/Applications/Utilities/Adobe Flash Player Install Manager.app/

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Flash Player Install Manager/

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/

/Library/PreferencePanes/Flash Player.prefPane/

/Users/sieler/Library/Caches/Adobe/Flash Player/

/Users/sieler/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/

/private/var/root/Library/Caches/Adobe/Flash Player/

ANYTHING on a USB or other external drive will have "Volumes/[volume name]/" at the beginning of the address. ANYTHING.

So, YES, I CAN determine that all of those listed locations were and are on the Mac HD volume, which is where Flash Player installs.

Report · Feb 27, 2014

Sigh again. Sheesh.

Three words: Terminal, man ln

Longer version: yes, I am right, you're wrong, that's enough.

Ok, ok ... if you couldn't read the above posts correctly, I can't expect any change now. So:

sudo su -

mkdir /Volumes/myUSBdrive/flash_player

ln -s /Volumes/myUSBdrive/flash_player "/Applications/Adobe/Flash Player"

ok? Clear?

Again ... since you don't read ... and again and again and again: I'm not recommending putting any of those directories on an external drive.

I'm simply saying, quite accurately, that one can if one wishes.

And ... no more posts. The thread's closed. Discussion's over. I don't *care* now if you've learned anything.

Report · Feb 27, 2014

Yay!!!!!!! You can pee further than I can!!!!

ANYONE installing a browser plugin to a NON-OS external drive gets the problems they deserve, and they can live with them. I don't give a flip about them either. They made the mess. They can clean it up themselves. I raised a daughter by byself, I'm done babysitting.

Report · Feb 27, 2014

data dude: thanks! and u don't have to option/click...whenever you drag from one volume to another the Mac does a copy, not a move, by default. (The mounted .dmg and the Desktop are on two different logical volumes)

sielers: hadn't realized external drives caused some delays i seen over time. I use mavericks on newer Macs fine, and Snow on older ones. Maybe time for you to buy a new Mac? That ln trick interesting.

mike_m: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090325091626579

...dont know if the default would miss any flash player files, but i been hit by that search fail elsewhere.

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Flash Player install hangs at 95%, MacOSX 10.9 (Mavericks)

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