Flash stopped working - strange version 23.0.0.162 in Chrome?

[markrd1969]

Yesterday Flash plug-in stopped working on Chrome and Safari.

Downloaded and updated to latest version.

Restarted.

Uninstalled

Restarted

Installed

a) Chrome keeps showing

Adobe Flash Player - Version: 23.0.0.162

Shockwave Flash 23.0 r0

Name:

Shockwave Flash

Description:

Shockwave Flash 23.0 r0

Version:

23.0.0.162

Location:

/Users/machintosh/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/PepperFlash/23.0.0.162/PepperFlashPlayer.plugin

Type:

PPAPI (out-of-process)

b) Safari didn't even have the Flash plug-in showing in preferences

Found instructions for a clean uninstall and install. Followed those.

Upon restarting and installing - Flash plugin did show in Safari and is working in Safari!

However Chrome is still not working. Despite uninstalling and then reinstalling version 22 - the listing in chrome://plugins/ is for this bizarre 23.0 r0

Any suggestions?

(Some days ago I did inadvertently accept an ad blocker which started generating marketing pop-ups for Mac Cleaner and other stuff on to the Mac which I think I've successfully removed. I'm wondering if that is the problem).

It seems like something is forcing this 23.0 version into Chrome even though I'm using the Adobe 22 installer.

Here is the install log - you can see I've been busy trying to figure this out. But the last PepperFlash install looks good and is version 22.

Where does version 23 come from??

Thanks!

[_maria_]

We are investigating this issue.

Can you please launch Finder and navigate to /Users/machintosh/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/PepperFlash/23.0.0.162.  What is the full name of the PepperFlashPlayer file as it appears in the directory?  If file extensions do not display, see OS X Yosemite: Show or hide filename extensions  to display them.

Safari and Chrome use two different plugin types.  Safari uses NPAPI plugin and Chrome uses PPAPI plugin.  Google embeds Flash Player in Chrome.  The PPAPI version downloaded from adobe.com is not used by Chrome.  If you didn't install the NPAPI plugin previously it's why Safari didn't display the Flash Player plugin.

[markrd1969]

Hi

Thanks for looking into this.
It is simply PepperFlashPlayer - with no file extension.

[jeromiec83223024]

This was the result of a hiccup in Google's auto-update system.  It should be resolved at this point.  If the issue persists, please check to see if a new update is available from Chrome > Menu > Help > About Google Chrome, or go to chrome://components/ and click Check For Update on pepper_flash.

[lynseyr34653993]

Hi. I have this exact same issue except my version of Adobe is 23.0.0.164. It was working fine this morning then by 12pm this afternoon it won't work at all.

I have uninstalled, reinstalled, restarted and everything and nothing is working. I am using Chrome as well. Please help.

[_maria_]

@lynseyr34653993​,

Please try the following:  

1. Launch Chrome and go to chrome://help - note the version of Chrome installed
2. Uninstall Chrome
3. Delete the following 2 folders:
   • C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\PepperFlash
   • C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\VersionNumberInStep1\PepperFlash
     • If you have a 64-bit OS you may need to look in Program Files (x86) for the Google directory
4. Re-install Chrome
5. Go to https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about - does Flash content (version information widget) display?

[_maria_]

@markrd1969

Google states the issue has been fixed, but we're still seeing some instances of the issue.

Please try the following:

1. uninstall Chrome
2. delete the folder /Users/machintosh/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/PepperFlash
3. re-install Chrome
4. Go to https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about - does Flash content (version information widget) display?

[earth_sound]

Could you link to the chromium issue? All of our OS X machines that are running Chrome beta started having this problem this week.

Uninstalling chrome, deleting the pepperflash folder in /Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/PepperFlash and reinstalling chrome does not fix this.

I'm running:

Google Chrome	54.0.2840.16 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)
Revision	011cbb51fc15804af6fa14e68231617d84437c6f-refs/branch-heads/2840@{#225}
OS	Mac OS X
JavaScript	V8 5.4.500.18
Flash	23.0.0.164
User Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_10_5) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/54.0.2840.16 Safari/537.36

[earth_sound]

You can follow the issue in chrome here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=645499

[_maria_]

This issue has been resolved in all Chrome channels (stable, beta, and Canary).

If you're still seeing "Couldn't load plugin" go to chrome://components and update the Flash Player plugin. The updated plugin will dispaly version 23.0.0.166 in chrome://components and chrome://plugins. However, Flash detection scripts (e.g. www.adobe.com/software/flash/about, helpx.adobe.com/flash-player.html, Flash context menu > About Flash, etc) will display version 23.0.0.162.  This is expected behaviour and not a bug.

--

Maria

[earth_sound]

Perhaps a previous issue was closed that appears similar/same. However, this is currently still an issue. See the issue I referenced above which is still being worked on.

Updating in components doesn't resolve it.

They are shipping chrome with file(s) missing. It cannot be resolved by the end user.

[_maria_]

The missing file issue has been fixed in 23.0.0.166.

What version is listed when you go to chrome://components?

<edit>

Please go to /Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/PepperFlash.  What directories (e.g. 23.0.0.164, 23.0.0.166, etc) are listed?

[earth_sound]

Checking for updates in components is finally pulling .166 for me. Earlier, I was stuck with .164.

[_maria_ · Accepted solution]

23.0.0.166 is the fixed version and should be working.

[isrithe2245]

Where do you get 23.0.0.166, can only see 23.0.0.162 on Adobe's site.

[_maria_]

It's a bit confusing, but essentially 23.0.0.166 and 23.0.0.162 are the same thing, for Chrome only.  chrome://plugins and chrome://components will report the version as 23.0.0.166, but www.adobe.com/software/flash/about or any other version detection site, the version will return as 23.0.0.162.

[Persiusx]

I'm still stuck in .164 and having shockwave plugin crashing errors when content is delivered via flash. Trying to force the components to update but says no update available. I can uninstall and use the directions posted in this thread but I also have 100's of customers using a custom website that still delivers data in flash (in progress for HTML5).

Why won't .166 be rolled out automatically to users?

FYI windows 8.1 here.

[_maria_]

What version of Chrome do you have installed?

What happens when you go to chrome://components and attempt to force an update?

[Persiusx]

Version 53.0.2785.116 m

Regarding the chrome://components - When I try to force an update it just says:

pepper_flash - Version: 23.0.0.164

Status - Component not updated

[_maria_]

in chrome://plugins, what is the directory path being used for the plugin?

[Persiusx]

C:\Users\Alex\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\PepperFlash\23.0.0.164\pepflashplayer.dll

[_maria_]

I'll need to escalate this.  When my version of Chrome updated to 53.0.2785.113 m it also updated to FP version 23.0.0.166 and therefore when it updated 53.0.2785.116 it was already 23.0.0.166.

Was your system upgraded to 23.0.0.162 prior to being upgraded to 21.0.0.164?

What other directories exist in C:\Users\Alex\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\PepperFlash?

[Persiusx]

I can't say for sure if my system was upgraded , as I only started checking when I had an issue.

The only directory in Pepperflash is 23.0.0.164

However in my C:Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\ Application

I have these two directories. (thought i'd mention that just in case)

52.0.2743.116

& 53.0.2785.116

--
Alex

[_maria_]

C:Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\ Application is where Chrome is actually installed to and the directories are the version numbers.  Depending on how Google updates Flash Player it can be saved to either C:Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\ Application\VersionNumber\PepperFlash or the User's AppData directory.  My observation has been that in the last several updates Google has put the update in the User's AppData directory.

I also haven't heard of any widespread issues with Flash Player crashing on Chrome on Windows 8.1.  It may be isolated issue, but I'm not sure why your version 23.0.0.164 hasn't been updated to 23.0.0.166 yet.

[Persiusx]

Okay so some new information has come to light.

I uninstalled my chrome install.

Reinstalled chrome (without deleting any folders)

When i checked Pepperflash it was 23.0.0.162 - then i waited a few minutes tested some sites out no problem.

A few minutes later 23.0.0.166 installed and it seems like everything is working fine. It doesn't seem widespread however, i'm getting emails with many users of our LMS which uses adobecaptivate/flash that they are having problems.