Filed under: Software, Internet
How to revert to the stable version of Flash player
It's no secret that Flash is a blight on the Internet and should be killed with fire. However, some sites insist on using it, and so you may be interested in having it around.Towards that end you may have read about the pre-release of Flash player 10.1 and decided to install it for the possible improvements in performance.
If you then decide to uninstall it, ha ha! You can't! Sorry!
Update: there is a uninstaller available, it is not included in the installer package. Read on for manual un-installation instructions, but use of the uninstaller is recommended. My apologies for the confusion. I wrongly assumed that Adobe would package an uninstaller with the installer, as that is what most Mac developers do when they offer an uninstaller. I regret the error.
Fortunately it can be removed by what I like to call "brute force."
- Quit all browsers
- Go to /Library/Internet Plug-Ins in Finder and delete the "Flash Player.plugin" and "flashplayer.xpt"
- Download the latest stable version of Flash player (which will download a file called "install_flash_player_osx_ub.dmg")
- Double-click "install_flash_player_osx_ub.dmg" which should open "/Volumes/Install Flash Player 10 UB" where you will find a file called "Adobe Flash Player.pkg"
- Control (right) click on "Adobe Flash Player.pkg" and choose "Show Package Contents".
- Open the "Contents" folder
- Drag the "Archive.pax.gz" file to your Desktop
- Double click on the "Archive.pax.gz" file to unarchive it, which will create a folder called "Archive"
- Open the "Archive" folder and locate the "Flash Player.plugin" and "flashplayer.xpt" files.
- Copy the "Flash Player.plugin" and "flashplayer.xpt" files to /Library/Internet Plug-Ins (you can then throw away the Archive folder on your Desktop, as well as Archive.pax.gz if it is still there.)
- Launch Safari and check your Flash version here. As of this writing, the current stable version is "10,0,32,18"
- (Optional) Install ClickToFlash so that Flash will only load when you want it to.
Some of you may be wondering why I didn't just delete the files from /Library/Internet Plug-ins/ and then run the installer for the stable version. I tried that, but the installer still insisted that there was a newer version installed, even after a reboot.
My advice is to keep using the stable version (with ClickToFlash) for now.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Richard said 7:17PM on 11-19-2009
There is an uninstall utility available at
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html
It sucessfully uninstalls the 10.1 beta, then you can reinstall any vresion you want.
Reply
dagamer43 said 7:52PM on 11-19-2009
This article now has no purpose.
Gary Knowles said 7:22PM on 11-19-2009
If you trash the flash pkg receipt in library>receipts as well as the plug in and xpt file then you are good to go. Then just re install the last stable release.
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TJ Luoma said 9:03PM on 11-19-2009
Thanks, Gary. That's the part that I forgot to remove.
Bender Bending Rodriguez said 7:21PM on 11-19-2009
"However, some sites insist on using it”
Like TUAW for Flash ads. =]
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skyleranelson said 7:27PM on 11-19-2009
"However, some sites insist on using it”
maybe cause people like flash... it's those retarded ads all over the place giving flash a bad name
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supaflex said 7:34PM on 11-19-2009
i don't no what are you talking about, but it's perfect worked (uninstalled) for me with link which posted Robert - http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html
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jonathan ober said 7:35PM on 11-19-2009
As a flash developer I get tired of tuaw pissing and moaning about things. Sure there is bad flash out there...but there are bad websites that are written in html/java/php etc too. So quit your balling tuaw...get over it. Just check out some of these flash sweet sites - http://www.bestflashanimationsite.com/archive/ .
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JC said 7:41PM on 11-19-2009
Uninstaller at
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html
worked for me.
I was able to uninstall the OS X version of Flash 10.1 and re-install the stable version.
seamusddog said 7:42PM on 11-19-2009
The difference is that Flash is inherently bad, unstable, and generally a POS technology that should be taken out back and shot. Let's hope that HTML 5 does that. And while you're at it, take Abode Air out back, and get rid of that too. If Adobe wrote TextEdit, it would probably hog as many resources as Photoshop.
TJ Luoma said 9:06PM on 11-19-2009
TUAW is hardly alone in its complaint about how Flash is used, and how poor its performance has consistently been on the Mac.
Poorly written HTML/PHP/etc doesn't degrade the performance of my browser and require that browser developers sandbox the process so that when it crashes it won't take down the entire browser.
The existence of some good usages of Flash doesn't negate the huge number of sites which use it in obtrusive and obnoxious ways.
Jordan said 7:42PM on 11-19-2009
First all the Apple bots bitch and moan that flash sucks. Then there's a better version released and they all bitch and moan that they installed a beta version and can't go back to the old version
Maybe if OSx had uninstallers...
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TJ Luoma said 9:00PM on 11-19-2009
I'm sorry that it offends you that I had to uninstall Flash because it led to instability.
Logan said 7:46PM on 11-19-2009
Why are people uninstalling the beta? Just wondering.
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TJ Luoma said 8:59PM on 11-19-2009
The pre-release version did not work with Mailplane.app if you had the "advanced file attach" selected.
Tony C said 10:14PM on 11-19-2009
That's not the only reason... Flash 10.1 beta is unstable as HELL. For me, it made Safari crash every 30 minutes with even the simplest use of flash on a website and Flash videos, which it was supposed to improve, suffered from slow loading, stuttering and skipping to the end at random.
I am SO happy I was able to uninstall 10.1 beta and replace it with 10. Just wish Adobe had the balls to include it in the distribution instead of having to scour their website for a PDF that linked the removal utility.
pardthemonster said 7:47PM on 11-19-2009
Sorry to say, but a simple "I'm Feeling Lucky" Google search of "uninstall flash". Would lead you to the uninstaller. Are you one of those people that doesn't search forums before posting???
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carthief said 7:51PM on 11-19-2009
Like everyone else has said, there IS an uninstaller. I just used it.
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Galley said 8:08PM on 11-19-2009
With new technologies like HTML5, Flash no longer serves a purpose.
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TIm said 3:13AM on 11-20-2009
I am getting so tired of this HTML5 BS. There is no major sites out there replacing flash with HTML5 yet and it is not gonna be for years that HTML5 will be broadly enough support to make flash obsolete. Meaning you will have to cope with flash (like it or not) for at least some years (1-2) or miss out on a lot of major websites.
T.