Flash Player MSI install does not finish successfully

[excelcare]

Hi all

I am having a difficult time trying to figure out why the MSI installer for Flash Player is not finishing on some of our computers I am getting mixed results across multiple machines and I don't feel like I am narrowing it down much.

The problem: when installing Adobe Flash Player using the MSI, Flash will get installed (you can use it and it appears in Control Panel) but the installation gets stuck or something prevents it from finishing. The progress bar will just sit in the middle and Flash doesn't get an entry in Programs and Features. If installing silently (e.g. we use PDQ Deploy) then the installer will never complete and report back to PDQ so it just times out. It will also prevent anything else from installing until you force it to close the installer process via Task Manager or reboot.

The versions I am currently testing with:

• 21.0.0.182
• 21.0.0.242

I have tried:

• Disabling anti-virus
• Uninstalling the anti-virus completely
• Completely uninstalling Flash before reinstalling or installing it on a totally clean Windows installation
  • It also gets stuck when updating an existing installation
• Deploying it silently via PDQ Deploy
  • Whether a user is logged on or not

I get mixed results on different machines. On some I can install it, update it, with or without AV disabled or installed, on other machines it will get stuck on a fresh install. I can't figure out why it works on some and not others. Can anyone think of a reason why this is happening?

[_maria_]

Hi,

What is the operating system, including version, of the impacted systems?

To verify, version 21.0.0.182 installed and you are attempting to upgrade to 21.0.0.242, correct?

Please provide the following files from an impacted system:

• FlashInstall.log file, saved at C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash.  If this is a 64-bit OS, there's another FlashInstall.log file saved at C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash. Both files are required from a 64-bit OS
• a verbose MSI install log file.  Run the MSI in verbose mode, with option /L*v to generate the log file with the most information.

Upload the files to cloud.acrobat.com/send using the instructions at How to share a document​.  Post the link to the uploaded files in your reply.

Thank you.

--

Maria

[excelcare]

Hi Maria,

Thank you for your reply and apologies for not getting back to you sooner.

We are using Windows 7 SP1 32-bit but I have seen the issue on 64-bit machines, too. It occurs on machines without Flash installed and when updating any version of Flash (for example I have seen it happen updating 21.0.0.182 to 21.0.0.242, but can also happen with older versions 18, 19 etc).

Please see the verbose log and screenshot of the issue here:

Shared Files - Acrobat.com

As you can see the installation never completes successfully, although if you check the Flash Control Panel item it appears to be the latest version.

[excelcare]

Hi Maria,

Have you managed to have a look at the log I provided yet?

[nicolasb19145048]

I am currently observing the same problem. I've just published Flash 21.0.0242 ActiveX on WSUS, and most of the Win7-machines do never finish installing, and this update gets repeatedly re-announced through WindowsUpdates, re-installed and still does not finish.

This is only happening when letting the system-account of the client install the MSI. No Flashinstall.log gets written. No files inside "c:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\" or "c:\Windows\Syswow64\Macromed\Flash\"

It is listed as installed in control panel / programs but no FlashPlayer control panel applet is there.

If I run this MSI as admin after cleaning the install with an uninstall, it will work. System account user has no proxy rights, admin has. Could this be because of missing internet connection?

[excelcare]

Glad to know I'm not the only one!

I see 22.0.0.192 is out so I tried to deploy that. On three machines, two succeeded and one got stuck, so it looks like the problem persists.

I can't easily test the issue on a 4G connection with a machine I know fails, but it would be interesting to see if that worked. However, isn't the whole point of the MSI so you can distribute it without a connection to Adobe's servers?

[excelcare]

This is still happening in 22.0.0.210

I'd really like to get a resolution to this, seeing as though I have to keep over 500 machines updated, it is hard to do reliably when machines won't report back what version of Flash they have installed because the installation never completes.