By now, you’ve probably heard that the future of Adobe Flash isn’t bright. Plagued by security issues, Adobe Flash has always been a thorn in the flesh of software developers such as Apple and Microsoft, who finally said that enough is enough and decided to get rid of it. In this article, we explain why Adobe Flash matters and why you, as a Mac user, should care about its inevitable demise.

However, the reality is that you still may need the Adobe Flash Player on your Mac. Many websites will not work if you uninstall it completely. Live streams like BT Sport can only be delivered in Flash, so if you are the BT Sport customer, you’ll want to keep the Flash Player. Adobe/Macromedia Flash is and probably will always be an inefficient resource hog. However, sometimes there really is no other choice since some websites won't make an alternate version available if you're on a computer vs maybe a tablet.

The Origin of Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash started its arduous life in the 90s, when its precursor, named SmartSketch, was published by FutureWave Software. The rising popularity of the internet at the time made FutureWave Software realize that their vector drawing application had had the potential to challenge Macromedia Shockwave, a multimedia platform for building interactive multimedia applications and video games.

In 1995, FutureWave Software approached Adobe Systems and offered SmartSketch for sale. Adobe Systems, however, declined the offer, which led to FutureWave Software getting acquired by Macromedia and its subsequent rebranding to Macromedia Flash 1.0. Under Macromedia’s patronage, Flash quickly gained both market share and new features, including scripting and data access capabilities.

In 2005, Macromedia was acquired by Adobe Systems for approximately $3.4 billion. Adobe Systems added support for the ActionScript 3.0 programming language, improved the animation capabilities of Flash, included a 3D engine that allowed basic object transformations in 3D space, and allowed GPU-accelerated 3D rendering for Flash applications and games on desktop platforms, just to name a few noteworthy improvements.

The End of Adobe Flash

By the beginning of this decade, Adobe Flash, including Flash for Mac, has already established itself as a popular multimedia platform for building interactive multimedia applications and video games. In 2011, Flash was included in 99 percent of desktop browsers. Unfortunately for Flash, the platform had already entered the last stage of its life by that time.

In an open letter titled Thoughts on Flash, Steve Jobs explained why he decided not to include support for Flash in iOS, “Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.”

Most Apple shareholders would most likely consider this to be a good-enough reason to adopt HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and other open standards instead, but Jobs had more reasons to stay away from Flash. “Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know firsthand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash,” he said.

Apple wasn’t the only company that was sick and tired of the security plaguing Flash. As such, nobody was surprised when Adobe released a press release, officially stating that the company was planning to stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020.

“Adobe will continue to support Flash on a number of major OSs and browsers that currently support Flash content through the planned EOL. This will include issuing regular security patches, maintaining OS and browser compatibility and adding features and capabilities as needed.”

While most major websites have already moved away from Flash and, just like Apple, embraced HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript, some still depend on the deprecated technology, forcing many Mac users to keep Adobe Flash for Mac installed on their computers. If you count yourself among them, the first thing you should do is ensure that you’re using the latest version of Flash.

How to Update Adobe Flash Player for Mac?

To update Flash Player Mac, complete the following steps:

1. Open Apple’s Spotlight app by pressing the command key on your keyboard and hitting the space bar.
2. Type Flash Player.
3. You should see an option titled “Flash Player.prefPane” under System Preferences. Click on it.
4. Go to the Updates tab.
5. Click on the Check Now button.
6. If Adobe Flash Player finds any available updates, it will prompt you.

How to Download Adobe Flash Player for Mac?

Follow the steps below to download Flash for Mac:

1. Go to the official download page: https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/
2. Select your operating system (Mac OS X 10.6 – 10.13) from the first drop-down menu on the left side of the page.
3. Choose whether you want to download Adobe Flash Player for Mac Chrome and Opera or for Safari and Firefox by clicking on the second drop-down menu on the left side of the page.
4. Click on the Download now button on the right side of the page.
5. Install Flash for Mac just like you would any other Mac software.

How to Disable Adobe Flash Player on Mac

Considering how often are new Flash security vulnerabilities discovered, it makes sense to keep Adobe Flash Player disabled and activate it only when you really need it.

Safari

Download Adobe Flash For Mac

1. Open Safari and go to the Menu bar and click on and then Preferences.
2. Click on the Security button and then Plug-In Settings.
3. Uncheck Adobe Flash Player from the left-hand menu.
4. Click on Done to finalize the change.

Chrome

1. Open Chrome and type in the following in Google Chrome’s location bar and press Enter: chrome://settings/content
2. Find the Flash Player listing on the Content settings screen and click on it.
3. Uncheck the Allow sites to run Flash option.
4. Close the chrome://settings/content tab to confirm the change.

Firefox

1. Open Firefox and type in about:addons in the Firefox address bar.
2. Click on Plugins on the left-hand side.
3. Look for Flash and select either Never Activate or Ask to Activate from the drop-down box right next to it.
4. Close the about:addons tab to confirm the change.

How to Enable Adobe Flash Player on Mac

The most straightforward way how to re-enable Adobe Flash Player on Mac computers is to simply uninstall it. Doing so will also ensure that you’re using the latest version and enable Adobe Flash Player on Mac across all installed web browsers and applications that use it. Alternatively, you can follow the instructions from the chapter above to re-enable Adobe Flash Player in individual web browsers.

How to Uninstall Adobe Flash Player on Mac

Adobe has created a dedicated uninstaller for Macs, and you can download it here.

1. Launch the downloaded uninstaller like you would any other Mac application.
2. Click on the Uninstall option.
3. Make sure you don’t have any web browser open on your computer as the uninstaller wouldn’t be able to complete the uninstallation process.
4. When you see the message notifying you that the uninstallation succeeded, click Done.
5. Delete the following directories:
   • <home directory>/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player
   • <home directory>/Library/Caches/Adobe/Flash Player
6. Restart your computer.
7. Visit this page to check if Flash Player is installed on your computer.
   • The same page also contains links to many Flash tutorials from Adobe.

How to Recover Files After Adobe Flash Malware Infection

Adobe Flash is among the most popular attack vectors used by cybercriminals to infect Mac computers. For example, in January 2018, a hacker successfully disguised dangerous malware as an Adobe Flash Player installer, probably targeting diplomats and other high-profile individuals.

If your computer had been infected with malware because of Adobe Flash, causing you to lose important files, there’s still some hope left — provided you act quickly enough. There are a number of data recovery software solutions for Mac computers that can recover even those files that your Mac can no longer see.

One such software solution stands out because it blends excellent usability with state-of-the-art data recovery algorithms, and its name is Disk Drill.

Disk Drill is a professional yet easy to use data recovery application that supports the recovery of over 200 file formats from virtually all storage devices. To use it, you simply launch it, select the storage device from which you would like to recover lost or deleted files, and click on the Recover button right next to it.

Of course, Disk Drill also allows you to precisely control the recovery process. As a nice bonus, Disk Drill comes with several extra free disk tools, including a duplicate file finder, a disk space analyzer, a data protection “Recovery Vault”, a disk monitoring utility, and a data backup tool for creating byte-to-byte disk and partition backups. Visit the official website of Disk Drill to download it for free.

Adobe Flash Player is a free software plug-in used by web browsers to view multimedia, execute rich Internet applications, and stream video on your Mac.

Adobe Flash Player is the most popular multimedia player plug-in available. However, recently there have been security concerns which has threatened its popularity as users seek safer alternative solutions. Opera, Firefox and Chrome contain built-in versions of Flash running in sandbox mode. This method is safer than running Flash as a plugin. However, currently the reality is that you still may need the Adobe Flash Player on your Mac because many websites will not work well if you uninstall it. Here I’ll show you how to install Adobe Flash Player and how to set it up correctly.

How to install Adobe Flash Player on your Mac.

1. Go to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ to download the Adobe Flash Player installer.

2. By default, the installer package will be downloaded to your “Downloads” folder.

3. Select the file on your Mac and double click to install it.

4. Select “Allow Adobe to install updates (recommended)” and click “DONE” to complete the installation.

If you installed Adobe Flash Player, but still cannot view online videos on certain websites, you need to check Adobe Flash Player on your browsers.

How to set up Adobe Flash Player on various browsers.

Safari

1. Launch Safari and go to the Apple menu bar and click Preferences.

2. Select the Websites tab and select On for “When visiting other websites.”

3. Refresh the browser tab, or restart the browser.

Google Chrome

1. Launch Chrome and type chrome://settings/content in the address field.

2. Select “Ask first (recommended)” and turn it on.

3. Refresh the browser tab or restart the browser.

Opera

1. Launch Opera and go to the Apple menu bar and click Preferences.

2. Select the Websites tab and then select “Allow sites to run Flash”

3. Refresh the browser tab or restart the browser.

Firefox

1. Launch Firefox and go to the Apple menu bar and click Tools – Add-ons.

2. Click the Plugins tab and turn the “Shockwave Flash” to “Always Activate.”

Note: (SWF (Shock Wave Flash) is a special format created by Macromedia, which has been acquired by Adobe. It is widely used in web design, animation production and other fields.)

For enhancing the user experience and security, Adobe is always trying to improve Adobe Flash Player. However, sometimes when you view a website, a Flash Player upgrade popup appears. Most people would click the “update” button to update their Flash Player, but this could be a false popup used by hackers to compromise your Mac. This is a method hackers use to trick you into downloading adware and malware through a false popup.

Be careful and don’t trust any automatic updates of Adobe Flash Player. Here I will tell you how to install real Flash Player updates and set it up.

How to update Flash Player on Mac safely

1. Go to the Apple menu bar and select System Preferences.

2. Select Flash Player.

3. Select the Updates tab and select “Allow Adobe to install updates (recommended)”. (Note: The Flash plug-in is officially updated 1~2 times a month, so selecting this option avoids frequent update.)

4. You may now notice that the Flash Update settings now shows NPAPI and PPAPI plugins. Let me explain them.

NPAPI – used by Safari, Firefox

PPAPI – used by Chromium, Opera and Chrome (Chrome’s implementation is built in)

5. Click Check Now to confirm that you currently have the latest version installed.

If you had clicked a false popup and downloaded adware, don’t worry, the Apple App Store has many antivirus apps, such as Trend Micro’s Dr. Antivirus, that you can use to do a free scan.

Follow the steps below in case you downloaded a fake Adobe Flash Player.

1. When you first install Dr. Antivirus, click “Pattern Update” to make sure your virus pattern is up to date. We suggest you update the virus pattern every day.

Is Adobe Flash Player Safe For Mac 2018

2. After the first installation, we highly suggest you perform a full scan of your Mac to check all files for possible infections. The Full scan will take more than one hour.

3. If you still find adware and a full scan has not found any viruses, we recommend you use Adware Cleaner. You can access Adware Cleaner in the left panel of the Dr. Antivirus window.

How to uninstall Adobe Flash Player

Adobe Flash Player for the Mac is a plug-in, not a Mac OS X application. When you try to uninstall Adobe Flash Player from your Mac, you might find that this plug-in is not so easy to delete. For example, you might see this message:

Cannot find Adobe Flash Player in your Applications folder.

In this case, Adobe Flash Player could not be removed and no reason was given. The following steps show how to uninstall Adobe Flash Player with no remaining parts.

1. Go to the /Applications/Utilities/ folder on your Mac and double-click the Adobe Flash Player Install Manager app.

2. Click Uninstall to begin the process.

3. Type the password and click Install Helper.

Is Adobe Flash Player Necessary

4. If your browser is running, the following window will appear. Select “Force Close All” to continue.

5. After the uninstaller removes the Adobe Flash software from your Mac, click Done.

What Is Adobe Flash Player