Shockwave Flash Crashes In Google Chrome

Skill Level: Easy

UPDATED 11th November 2011 – from comments received, the fix below resolves this issue for most people. But we have now added further tips at the bottom to help with the small number of cases where Flash still crashes.

Many users of the Google Chrome web browser report problems with the Adobe Flash Player plugin – the problem has continued from Chrome 10 through to the current Chrome 15

What Is The Problem?

When trying to browse a Flash-based website e.g. YouTube or use tools like Google Mail (which also rely on Flash), the Flash plugin crashes with a message saying: “The following plugin has crashed: Shockwave Flash“.

What Does That Mean?

Ignore the reference to Shockwave – the error message ‘the following plugin has crashed: Shockwave Flash’ means that the Adobe Flash Player plugin has crashed – it has nothing to do with Adobe Shockwave Player which is a separate program.

What Causes The Crashes?

As we noted in our article on updating Adobe programs, Google Chrome already includes an integrated version of Flash Player which is automatically updated by Chrome – there is normally no need to download the standalone version of Flash Player which is intended for non-IE users (primarily Firefox).

However, if Firefox or a similar web browser is (or has ever been) installed on your computer, then you have likely also installed the standalone version of Flash for Firefox and other web browsers – and this would include Chrome!

Therefore Chrome tries to use two versions of Flash Player – its own version built into Chrome and the standalone Adobe version you installed for Firefox/others. Having both versions active often causes ‘the following plugin has crashed: Shockwave Flash’ error message because they may conflict with each other.

How To Fix It

• Open Chrome

• Type   about:plugins   into the website address bar at the top and press the ENTER key to display Chrome’s Plugins page

• Look down the list of Plugins for ‘Flash’ – if it says ‘Flash (2 files)’ you do have both versions of Flash installed which may cause Chrome to crash when accessing Flash-based websites

• Click on the ‘+ Details’ link at the top right of the Plugins page to expand the list of all Plugins

• Scroll down the list to find the Flash plugin – you should now see the full details of the Flash plugin displaying two versions of Flash as in the example below:

• Look at the ‘Location:’ of each version – one is the integrated Chrome version (…Application Data\Google\Chrome etc) and the other is the standalone Adobe (formerly Macromedia) version which is in the …Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash etc directory.

• Click on ‘Disable’ just under the Location of the Chrome version to disable it (and it will become greyed out)
  

• Ensure that the standalone Adobe version is enabled – if it is disabled (greyed out) click the ‘Enable’ link just under its Location to enable it) then close the Plugins tab

• Download and save to your computer the latest Adobe standalone version of Flash from Filehippo here (this is the Firefox/Chrome version)

• Close Chrome and then install the newest standalone version of Flash you just downloaded

• Finally, start Chrome and visit the Adobe Flash Player test page to check that Flash is now properly installed and working ok

Tip: Now that you have disabled the faulty integrated Chrome version of Flash, you will need to keep the standalone Adobe version updated on a regular basis – we recommend installing Filehippo’s Update Checker to automatically check for new updates as it can also check for many other programs in addition to Adobe’s Flash.

Alternatively, go into Control Panel\Flash Player to open the Flash Player Settings Manager, click on the Advanced tab and in the Updates section click to select ‘Check for updates automatically (Recommended)’.

Other Tips – Added 11th Nov 2011

From our readers’ comments, the above fix has worked for most but, if it doesn’t work for you, here are some further tips that may help:

1. If you only have 1 Flash plugin it must be the integrated Chrome one. Download the latest Adobe Firefox/other standalone version of Flash from Filehippo here then close Chrome and install that downloaded Flash program. Then just follow the steps in the ‘How To Fix It’ section above – effectively you will be switching off Chrome’s Flash and utilizing Adobe’s Flash instead – hopefully that will work better for you.

2. Try the ‘How To Fix It’ steps again but the other way round i.e. this time Enable the built in Chrome Flash and Disable the Adobe standalone version then test to see if it cures the crashes.

3. See if Flash works ok in Incognito mode (click the wrench/spanner in menu bar and choose ‘New Incognito Window’ to start Incognito Mode). Incognito mode disables all Chrome Extensions – if Flash now works without crashing then one of your Extensions must be causing the problem so, back in normal Chrome mode, disable your extensions one at a time and test Flash until it stops crashing. The last extension disabled is the one causing the problem – leave it disabled and enable the others again.

4. Disable all Plugins except Flash. If Flash now works without crashing then one of your Plugins must be causing the problem – enable your Plugins one at a time and test Flash until it starts crashing again. The last Plugin enabled is the one causing the problem – disable it and enable the others again.

5. Update yours graphics card drivers (especially if they are old). Driver updates are often released to fix an issue with how Windows or individual programs work with a piece of hardware or to enable new features for it.

6. Disable Flash hardware acceleration to eliminate hardware or driver compatibility problems with Flash Player – untick ‘Enable Hardware Acceleration’ in the Flash Display panel (to view the Display panel, right click the picture (application image) during playback of a Flash video and, from the context menu, select ‘Settings’. The Display panel is the first panel (tab) shown at the bottom of the Settings window.

7. The nuclear option. Test Flash on Firefox – if it doesn’t crash there and all the above steps failed then your version of Chrome is probably corrupt. The last resort is to uninstall Chrome and ensure you clear the browsing data during uninstall. Then, reinstall the latest stable version (currently Chrome 15) and the problem will hopefully be fixed. Remember to backup all your bookmarks/passwords etc BEFORE you uninstall.

Or you could just use Firefox…

Related posts:

1. Updates For Adobe Flash, Shockwave, Reader And Java
2. Updates For Flash Player, Itunes And VLC
3. New Adobe Flash Player 10.3 Allows Flash Cookie Cleaning
4. Why You Should Update Adobe Flash Player
5. Adobe To Allow Easy Flash Cookie Cleaning