Solved Flash videos won't play on certain sites

[bru]

I have IE9 on my desktop. Today I went to a site I have used many times (local news website) and the videos would not play. They show the thumbnail but when play is pressed it goes black. No video or audio, nothing.

I checked another local news site site and the videos there would not play. But videos play fine on other sites such as Youtube, Yahoo News etc. So it is not a complete failure of Flash Player.

I also have a Win 7 laptop with the same version of IE9 and the sites that won't play videos on my desktop work just fine there. So is it something unique to the desktop as opposed to the browser?

Here is what I did to troubleshoot, note Flash Player is up to date, v12.0.0.77:

1. Installed IE10 - No difference, videos still won't play. Reverted back to IE9 since that is what the laptop has.
2. Ran IE10 with no add-ons. Vides would not play.
3. Installed Firefox - Videos would not play --- very concerning as this means the problem is not unique to IE.
4. Installed Chrome - Videos play fine --- Now I'm really confused. It seems as if Chrome may use a different program to render (if that is the right term) as it says "upLynk version 14021902" when you right click on the video. Still Flash Player though.

Stumped at this point. Looking for suggestions/help in getting this resolved. Thank you

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Post a link to a video ie or Firefox will not play,
Cheers.

 

[bru]

Hi,
Post a link to a video ie or Firefox will not play,
Cheers.

Anything on this site. http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video Used to play just fine.

Videos will play on my other Win 7 computer and my Win 8 computer.

 

[ThrashZone]

Seems fine,
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html
Temp files delete,
Run this as administrator and Start the scanner,
Shut your machine down after it finished,
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/files/file/187-tfc-temp-file-cleaner-by-oldtimer/
Then re-download flash,
Cheers.

 

[bru]

Seems fine,
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html
Temp files delete,
Run this as administrator and Start the scanner,
Shut your machine down after it finished,
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/files/file/187-tfc-temp-file-cleaner-by-oldtimer/
Then re-download flash,
Cheers.

Flash Player works fine on numerous other sites. I always clean temp files using CCleaner.

I suppose I can try reinstalling but if it was an overall Flash problem I would have thought it would be more widespread.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I didn't even have flash installed and couldn't watch the videos,
I downloaded it and they played ?
How to configure your Flash Player settings for maximum privacy and security

 

[bru]

Hi,
I didn't even have flash installed and couldn't watch the videos,
I downloaded it and they played ?
How to configure your Flash Player settings for maximum privacy and security

Uninstalling/reinstalling Flash did nothing. They still don't play.

 

[Callender]

Some ideas

Sorry to jump into this thread but here's a few suggestions.

As you say that the problem is not unique to IE - it's a flash player problem.

The usual problem with flash player is that old versions or remnants of them don't get removed when you update it. If you removed it via Control Panel then reinstalled it - that still doesn't remove all trace of old versions.

If you didn't shut down any programs that might be using flash when you uninstalled it then it won't get fully removed.

Chrome is also a problem. It has it's own version of flash player and likewise the old versions of Chrome don't get fully removed when an update is available.

So I'm not an expert on removing old versions of Chrome - I stopped using it ages ago.

The correct way to uninstall flash player is outlined here:

Uninstall Flash Player | Windows

It's important to follow all the steps listed including deleting the leftover files/ folders and it's important to reboot. Most users skip that step. It flushes the cache.

Anyway if you didn't uninstall flash player as shown in the link - try that method. Then install the latest version again.

If you've still got problems across all browsers I'd suggest running a scan with:

https://secunia.com/products/consumer/PSI/sys_req/

It will require installation. The important thing is to get the old version - link is shown in the screenshot, as it has a lot more user options and doesn't leave a service running in the background.



Run a scan and pay attention to any flash player, active X, or Chrome problems found. Manually delete problem files if needed. Apply any updates suggested.

Reboot again.

If flash player then works in Firefox but not in IE - reset IE to default settings.

If it doesn't work at all check for any flash blocker that you might have installed ans forgotten about.

Check how many flash player .dll's are shown in Chrome like this:

Flash Player with Google Chrome

(aboutlugins) and if you see more than one disable so that there's only one flash player .dll left enabled in Chrome.

 

[bru]

edit: SOLVED

After resetting browser, uninstalling/reinstalling Flash, system restore etc. Googling around led me to the solution. It was a Global Setting for Flash that was preventing the videos from showing.

Needed to enable "Allow third-party Flash content to store data on your computer". I believe I had it unchecked based on an article about safe Flash player settings. But if it needs to be enabled for me to view videos, so be it.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
The second link should of shown you all of the available settings in flash player,
Cheers.

 

[bru]

Hi,
The second link should of shown you all of the available settings in flash player,
Cheers.

That article (from 2009) says to leave those Global Storage options unchecked. That's what was causing my issue.

Safety and privacy is great...except when it interferes with how something is supposed to work.

 

[ThrashZone]

Fair enough but it's a safety minded referral
How to get to the settings is clear,
I have mine set to Ask and it does I click Yes and then it plays,
If your not worried about that type of safety,
Drag the slider all the way to the right,
Go to the other yellow folder for storage and do the same,
Cheers.