The succession of vulnerabilities found in Adobe’s Flash Player shows no signs of dying down: not a month goes by without Adobe releasing another yet emergency update for Flash to patch a bunch of newly discovered vulnerabilities (measuring in the dozens).
Likewise, Google Chrome will automatically update Flash Player to version 23.0.0.185. Safari on macOS Sierra deactivates Flash by default, only turning on the plug-in when user requested. Mac Users Attacked Again by Fake Adobe Flash Update Posted on April 12th, 2016 by Graham Cluley Mac users are once again being urged to exercise caution when installing updates to Adobe Flash Player, after a fake update was discovered infecting computers. Adobe Flash CS3 Professional (9.0.2) delivers support for the latest update of Adobe Flash Player 9. This update includes a new Video Playback component supporting H.264, support for Flash Lite 3 Update for Flash CS3 Professional, and all Debug and Release versions of this new Adobe Flash Player.
Some of them can be pretty nasty as they introduce new attack vectors for spyware, ransomware, trojans and other malicious applications that you don’t want anywhere near your computer.
A few years ago, Flash Player was impossible to avoid because a bulk of web video was encoded in Adobe’s proprietary Flash format, but not anymore: YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and many other popular web services now use HTML5-based video players that work in any modern browser.
While Apple does block older, vulnerable versions of Flash in the Safari browser on macOS, you should do yourself a favor and remove Flash Player from your Mac using step-by-step instructions provided in this tutorial.
Update Adobe Flash Player For Mac
How to remove Adobe Flash from your Mac
1) Navigate to the /Applications/Utilities/ folder on your Mac and launch the Adobe Flash Player Install Manager app.
Tip: If you don’t see the app and are positive that Flash Player is in fact installed on your Mac, download the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller from Adobe’s website.
2) Click the Uninstall button to begin the process.
3) Type the administrator password for your OS X user account and click OK to continue.
Flash Player is now being uninstalled from this Mac. You cannot cancel the uninstaller at this point. Don’t restart or turn off your computer until the uninstaller finishes.
4) After the uninstaller removes Adobe Flash software from your computer, click Done.
And that’s all there’s to it, folks!
Living in a Flash-free world!
Congratulations, your Mac is now Flash-free and your computer is no longer prone to Flash vulnerabilities—even if you try to access Flash content in a browser—as long as you don’t reinstall Flash Player.
Don’t you shed a tear—you’ll be better off without Flash altogether!
Verifying that Flash Player uninstallation is complete
After running the uninstaller, your system should be free of Flash Player and its associated web plug-in. To verify that Flash uninstallation has been completed successfully, first restart your Mac by choosing Restart in the Apple menu.
Then, open your browser and check the status of Flash Player on Adobe’s website. If Flash Player is no longer installed on this Mac, the page will produce an error message.
Accessing Flash content without Flash Player
As we mentioned, you can watch virtually any video on the web without needing Flash Player.
In moving away from Flash-encoded video, web developers have embraced HTML5 video en masse. For starters, HTML5-based video works in any modern web browser without needing a dedicated plug-in.
In addition, HTML5 video takes advantage of your computer’s chips to decode content in hardware. Not only does that allow for smooth video playback than in Flash Player, but also does so in a power-efficient manner that helps conserve energy.
With that in mind, if you stumble upon a piece of Flash content on the web that you want to view but hate the idea of re-installing Flash Player, simply use Google Chrome for these purposes. Google’s browser has built-in Flash Player, but it’s sandboxed to prevent Flash vulnerabilities from affecting the rest of your system.
macOS blocks outdated Flash versions
Out-of-date versions of Adobe Flash Player that do not include the latest security updates are automatically disabled in Safari by macOS to help keep your Mac secure and help limit exposure to potential zero day exploits from web plug-in enabled content.
If you see the message “Blocked plug-in,” “Flash Security Alert” or “Flash out-of-date” when attempting to view Flash content in Safari, that’s Apple warning you that you’re using an out-of-date version of the Adobe Flash Player plug-in on your computer.
More Mac tips? Browse our tutorials archive.
Need help? Ask iDB!
Not sure how to do something on your Apple device? Let us know at help@iDownloadBlog.com and we might solve your specific problem and provide a solution in one of our future tutorials.
Submit your how-to suggestions at tips@iDownloadBlog.com.
If you found this how-to helpful, drop us a line below and share your own tips.
Are you tired of seeing an update like this on your Mac? Adobe asks you to download and install an update to Flash Player because they have made some significant improvements in the new version?
Years ago, Adobe confirmed that they have a major security vulnerability related to Flash Player, as discovered by Trend Micro and reported BGR. There doesn't seem to be signs that those vulnerabilities are completely fixed as Adobe keeps releasing new versions for their Flash Player app.
While updating Flash on Mac is just a few clicks away, I found the process tedious and most of the time — unnecessary. Because unlike the old days we had to use Adobe Flash Player to view web videos as they were mostly encoded in Adobe’s proprietary Flash format.
Not anymore! These days modern web browsers (i.e. Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc.) all work seamlessly to YouTube, Vimeo, and many other live streaming web services — leaving Flash Player off the table.
So, it makes sense to uninstall Adobe Flash Player from your Mac so you won't be bothered by the annoying updates and potential security issues.
In this article, I'm going to show you how to do that step by step. Note: two methods are introduced in case the first one doesn't work out.
Method 1: Remove It with Adobe Flash Player Install Manager
Please note that the screenshots below are taken from Flash version 29, based on macOS High Sierra. If your Mac is running an earlier macOS or an older version of Adobe Flash, minor user interface differences may apply.
Step 1: On your Mac, go to Applications > Utilities, find this app 'Adobe Flash Player Install Manager'. Click to run it.
Alternatively, you can do a quick search on Spotlight and select the 'TOP HIT' result.
Download Adobe Flash Player For Mac Sierra
Step 2: Click the Uninstall button in the new window called Adobe Flash Player Uninstaller, where it says 'This program will remove Adobe Flash Player from your computer.'
Step 3: Input your Mac's username and password and select 'Install Helper'. Personally, I find this annoying but there isn't a way to avoid installing the Adobe helper tool.
Note: the helper tool by Adobe is harmless. It's common for third-party applications like Adobe to ask user's permission to perform certain tasks such as removing items with special permissions, uninstalling items from Mac App Store, etc., because macOS puts many limits restrictions on this.
Step 4: DONE. A new window pops up saying Flash was removed from my system.
This is the recommended yet standard method for deleting Flash Player from a Mac. It should take you less than a minute to complete. The only downside of this method is that once you uninstall Flash Player, you end up with installing another Adobe app — the Helper tool.
Some Mac fellows reported that they encountered issues using the Adobe Flash Uninstaller app on their Macs, it's unclear what caused that. But if Method 1 didn't work out for you, turn to the second method — it's even quicker.
Method 2: Uninstall Flash Player with CleanMyMac
CleanMyMac 3, is an app developed by MacPaw Inc. that aims to make Mac cleanup and maintenance easy. While its core features are related to cleaning, the app also allows you to quickly uninstall third-party apps or extensions in batch, and removing Adobe Flash Player can be achieved easily as well.
Here's how:
- Download CleanMyMac and install the app on your Mac.
- Open it. On the left part of the main panel, find Extensions > Preference Panes, there you should be able to find 'Flash Player'.
- Select it and click the 'Remove' button.
That's it. Pretty easy, right? It's worth noting though, CleanMyMac isn't freeware (it has a free trial). We use the app quite often on our Macs and it works amazingly well and has saved us tons of time handling complex/techy tasks such as freeing up disk space, cleaning third-party apps or launch agents, finding large old items, and more. The app is definitely a productivity booster for most Mac users, especially if you are not a computer person.
Additional tip: Adobe actually has a dedicated article here in case you failed to install or uninstall Flash on your Mac. For example, an error message appears. There you'll find detailed troubleshooting guide.
Alright, now that we've shown two ways to get rid of Adobe Flash Player from your Mac. Are they helpful? Or do you have another 'secret' way to help get the job done?
Update Adobe Flash Player For Mac Sierra Download
Either way, leave a comment below and let us know.
Chris is a computer geek for a decade. He loved talking to computers via codes, and now he finds it more interesting communicating with the real people. He now writes everything related to computer issues and loves helping people solve problems.