Best apps live in Setapp

Open Safari, and choose Safari Preferences. Click the Websites tab and scroll down to the Plug-ins section. Locate the Adobe Flash Player entry. Click the checkbox to enable Flash Player. If you see the Flash Player EOL information screen when you try to play a game, that means that SeaMonkey is loading your installed Flash Player plugin instead of the plugin that is bundled with Flashpoint. To fix the problem, uninstall Flash Player from your Mac and restart Flashpoint. Games should work again in SeaMonkey. Adobe® Flash® Player is a lightweight browser plug-in and rich Internet application runtime that delivers consistent and engaging user experiences. In this step-by-step guide, learn how to uninstall or remove Adobe Flash Player from your Mac computer, and delete any additional related files.

By the simple virtue of browsing the web over the years, nearly all of us have seen a variety of pop-ups asking us to download or upgrade Flash Player for Mac. Usually, there’s little explanation involved, which leaves you thinking, “Do I really need to install Adobe Flash Player on Mac?”

Adobe Flash is a proprietary software that started in the late ‘90s as a way to include advanced interactivity, gaming functionality, and video capability into your browser. By the early 2000s, Flash was supported by every major browser and seemingly ran the internet. That is until Steve Jobs himself declared a war on it.

In a press release published by Apple in 2010, Steve Jobs laid out his reasons for not integrating Adobe Flash in the Safari browser by default. His main criticisms of the platform were its closed proprietary nature, slow updates, weak security, and increasing availability of open standards that were arguably better equipped to handle browser interactivity.

For a long time, Adobe Flash security issues were the primary reason most developers discouraged people from installing the application. As you may have noticed, oftentimes Adobe Flash Player download for Mac pop-ups haunt you on the least trustworthy websites. It’s highly likely that those were hackers using Adobe Flash installers to find a way into your system.

Fortunately, in the last 10 years, the popularity of Adobe Flash has decreased significantly. By now, 95% of all websites have switched to the open HTML5 standard. This even includes all the major video companies, such as Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, and YouTube. In fact, the popularity of the Flash technology has declined so much now that Adobe decided to end its Flash support in 2020.

So is Adobe Flash Player safe? Generally, yes, given that you download Flash Player for Mac from Adobe’s official website. And sometimes there is no way around installing Flash as you might still need it to run that lagging 5% of the web properly. Whatever the reason, below we’ll discuss how to manage Adobe Flash safely and securely.

Mac problem that needs a quick fix?

Get Setapp and install 150+ apps in one pack, a solution catering for every issue you have with your Mac.

How To Install Adobe Flash Player On Mac

If you absolutely need to download Adobe Flash Player for Mac, you should at the very least do it securely. Good tips to note are install Flash only when required, disable it when not in use, update it regularly to get the latest security patches, and delete it completely as soon as you can make the full switch to more modern web technologies.

Safely install Adobe Flash Player on Mac

If there would be only one takeaway from reading this article, it should be: never ever download Flash Player for Mac from unrecognized websites.

Using Macs in general is very safe. But by far the most popular way for hackers to get into your system is to persuade you to download malware that’s masking itself as a well-known program. And Flash Player for Mac tops the list, having the worst security record out of any software. Moreover, Adobe Flash is the number one reason Macs crash overall.

So when you are about to install Adobe Flash Player on Mac, you should:

1. Go to get.adobe.com/flashplayer (this is the only official Flash Player for Mac distributor)

2. Click “Download now”

3. Navigate to your Downloads folder and open the .dmg file

4. Proceed through the installation instructions

5. Restart the browser, after which Adobe Flash Player for Mac should be activated

Update Adobe Flash Player for Mac regularly

Once you have Flash Player installed, you need to remember to update it regularly (e.g. once a month) to avoid any security issues. To check whether there’s a new version of Flash available:

1. Open System Preferences

2. Click on the Flash Player and navigate to the Updates tab

3. Select Check Now or Install Now if there’s an update available

Disable Flash when not in use

When you encounter a website that doesn’t work properly without Flash, proceed to install the player from the official (very important) website as per the steps above. But for complete security, turn off Flash right after you use it and enable it only when there’s no workaround.

To disable Flash Player for Mac in Safari:

1. Go to Preferences and then Websites

2. Scroll down to Plug-ins and uncheck the Adobe Flash Player

Similarly, disabling Flash can be done in Content Settings in Chrome and Addons > Plugins in Firefox.

Completely uninstall Flash Player for Mac

There’s a lot of confusion with regards to deleting Flash Player. As we’ve seen, when you download Flash Player for Mac, it doesn’t install itself as an app, but rather integrates into your System Preferences.

Hence removing Flash Player is not as easy as just dragging it to the Trash. Adobe has a whole page devoted to the uninstallation process and makes you download a separate tool to delete Flash properly.

To remove Flash Player the Adobe way:

1. Download the uninstaller for your macOS

2. Launch it as any app and follow the instructions

3. Restart your Mac

However, due to the Flash Player’s pervasive presence on your Mac, it’s highly recommended that you use a professional third-party uninstaller like CleanMyMac X.

Get a pro uninstaller for Mac

With CleanMyMac X, unneeded software and junk will be gone from your computer in a single cleanup. An all-mighty cleaner that deserves your attention.

To uninstall Adobe Flash Player on Mac with CleanMyMac X:

1. Navigate to the Uninstaller tab

2. Select Adobe from Vendors

3. Check the box next to Flash Player and click Uninstall

Recover files lost to Flash Player

Sometimes you simply can’t prevent the malware from getting into your system. And most of the time you only realize that infiltration happened after the fact, when you discover some of your files completely gone.

Good news is you might be able to recover your files if you act quickly. As soon as you notice any files missing, install a professional Mac recovery app like Disk Drill and follow this process:

1. Launch Disk Drill app from Applications

2. Find your hard drive in the list and click Recover

3. Choose one of the recommended options, from disabling system protection to connecting another Mac, to allow Disk Drill to recover lost files

Finally, to stop compromised apps or files from getting into your system, use a malware protection utility in CleanMyMac X on a regular basis.

To scan your Mac for viruses with CleanMyMac X:

1. Select the Malware Removal tab

2. Click Scan

3. Delete anything suspicious that shows up in the report

Adobe Flash Player For Mac Catalina

Overall, there are very few reasons to download Flash Player for Mac today. Nearly all modern websites have switched to community-supported standards like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. But if you need to use Flash, make sure to download it from the official source and turn it off when not required to protect yourself from its security flaws.

In addition, make sure you’re fully protected from any worst-case scenarios by checking for malware with CleanMyMac X and recovering lost files with Disk Drill. And if you use Google Chrome, you can avoid Adobe Flash Player download for Mac altogether as it comes pre-installed in the browser.

Don’t feel like spending money on buying all the professional apps? Both CleanMyMac X and Disk Drill are available for you to try for free, along with more than 150 high-end Mac apps and utilities, through Setapp — the best platform for curated Mac apps. Adobe Flash might be on its way out, but in the meantime, you should definitely verify that you’ve been using it responsibly all this time.

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

Sign Up

Adobe has finally ended support for Flash Player from 1 January 2021, and it will altogether disable the plug-in from 12 January. However, the software will continue to remain on your system. It is wiser to uninstall Adobe Flash Player from your Mac. Here’s why;

Adobe Flash Player Mac 10.6

Why should you remove Adobe Flash from your Mac?

In 2017, Adobe asked developers to explore other open formats for Flash-like content, as it would seize development & distribution of the Flash Player by the end of 2020. And now that the day has come, Adobe strongly suggests that users remove Flash from their Mac & PCs as:

“Uninstalling Flash Player will help to secure your system since Adobe does not intend to issue Flash Player updates or security patches after the EOL date.”

So, to ensure that your Mac is safe from any harm, you should quickly uninstall the software.

• How to uninstall Adobe Flash Player on your Mac

While not too complicated, there are a few steps involved in the process. First and foremost, confirm if your device has Flash or not. Click on the Apple icon → System Preferences → look for the Flash icon.

A missing icon means your device does not have Flash, and you are good to go. But if it is present, move on to the next step.

Determine your Mac’s OS version

1. Click the Apple icon & select About This Mac.
2. Here, note the version of your macOS.

Depending upon your macOS version, download the correct Adobe Flash Player uninstaller

How to uninstall Adobe Flash Player on your Mac

First, you have to download and run uninstaller on your Mac

• Mac OS X, version 10.6 and later: uninstall_flash_player_osx.dmg
• Mac OS X, version 10.4 and 10.5: uninstall_flash_player_osx.dmg
• Mac OS X, version 10.3 and earlier: uninstall_flash_player_osx_10.2.dmg

Uninstall Adobe Flash on Mac OS X 10.4 or later

1. Double click on the downloaded file to run it.
2. In the new window, double-click the Uninstaller icon, click Open if it asks for permission.
3. Here, select Uninstall, and if prompted, enter your devicepassword.
4. Close or Force Quit all open browsers.
   Note: Don’t quit the uninstaller window; it will stop the uninstallation process.
5. Once the uninstallation is completed, click Done.
6. Open Finder, press Command+Shift+G, copy-paste this path /Library/Preferences/Macromedia/FlashPlayer, and delete this directory.
7. Again, press Command+Shift+G, copy-paste this path /Library/Caches/Adobe/Flash Player, and delete this directory as well.
8. To verify, restart your Mac and open this link in your browser to check Flash Player’s status.

Adobe Flash Player Per Mac Catalina

Run Adobe Flash uninstaller on your Mac OS X 10.1 to 10.3

1. Double-click to open the uninstaller and then double-click the Uninstaller icon to run it.
2. Click Continue to start the process.
3. Close all open browsers and other apps that might use Flash Player.
4. Once completed, the uninstaller will close automatically.
5. Restart, open the browser, & check the status via this website.

If you feel this is too much of a hassle, you can use an app cleaner for Mac to get rid of Flash.

Uninstalled Adobe Flash Player successfully on Mac!

Flash has been an integral part of my growing days, and deleting it from my Mac, certainly makes me nostalgic. But it is what it is! If you are in the same boat, check out the Internet Archive website, as they plan to preserve Flash games and animations forever.

What are your childhood memories with Flash? Share them in the comment section below.

Adobe Flash Player Pour Mac Catalina

More articles you would like to read: