Safari Flash detect problem?

[londonweb]

I've been finding recently that a lot of sites that are now using Flash Player 8 or 9 content are not working under Safari. I'm fairly certain I installed Flash Player 8 for Safari and in fact when I right-click a Flash object that does work, it tells me I've player 9 installed, so I guess I must have installed that at some point too.

The problem seems to lie with detection scripts - I've got one that I use on a few sites that came from Adobe's website about a year ago, and uses Javascript and a bit of VB script to detect the player before loading the content. It works perfectly in everything else, but in Safari it always tells me I don't have the right player. On sites that have an option to 'View anyway', the site generally works fine, suggesting that I do in fact have the right player installed.

Is this a known issue, or something specific to me? Is there perhaps a more recent detection script to use?

 

[kayjprod]

I have the same problem too. Its a pain occasionally, but seeing as I'm forced to use a PC at work... er, there's my work around!

 

[mnkeybsness]

i haven't seen this issue. what version of safari/os x are you running?

 

[Sherman Homan]

I have to use Firefox for any site that uses Flash content. Safari either bombs immediately, or it waits for a while then locks up the whole machine. Firefox handles Flash with out a problem. I would like Apple to update this, but I suspect that we will have to wait for 10.5 now.

 

[mkrishnan]

This is weird... Flash content is working for me in Safari. This is my setup, both on an iBook G4 and iMac G5:

Tiger (10.4.8)
Safari 2.0.4 (419.3)
SafariStand (latest version, I think), SafariBlock 1.14, Taboo 0.3, and Inquisitor 3.0b2 installed on top of Safari
Flash 9.0.16.0 and Shockwave 10.1r11
Quicktime (7.1.3) with F4M (2.1.0.33) and Perian (0.5, I think).

P.S. Are you using an Intel Mac or a PPC Mac? Is it possible that this has something to do with it?

 

[londonweb]

I'm running Safari Version 2.0.4 (419.3) and Mac OS 10.4.8 on PPC. There isn't a problem with actually viewing Flash content, it's to do with the detection of the Flash Player when the Flash content needs player version 8 or 9 - the detection tells me I don't have it. I'm trying to remember a site that it happens with, I'll post the link when I think of it.

 

[kayjprod]

I'm using Safari 2.0.4 in 10.4.8 on a MBP 2.16. I have the same problem on my Intel Mac Mini with the same software set-up.

 

[clintob]

The problem is two-fold actually... and it's actually not Apple's fault.

(1) Adobe's installer doesn't actually remove the old versions of the Flash player - it just installs the new one on top. So your preferences might not realize that there's a new player. Your best bet is to manually (or with some freebie software) totally wipe out all your Flash players and then do a fresh install of the most recent one from Adobe's site.

(2) If you actually use Flash (the program), there are two seperate players installed on your machine - the main one is the standalone Flash player that installs with Flash MX, Flash 8, etc. Then the secondary player is the plugin for your browser. Again, I have found that when these players are running different versions, it can cause conflicts. Same fix as above.

In both cases, it's not a Safari issue per se, as much as it is an issue with your machine looking for an old player while there's a newer one installed because the installer script doesn't remove the old one. Try the above (clean out all your Flash players, and the corresponding preferences files) and then compeltely reinstall the player from Adobe.com. This fixes the problem.

---

Also, it's worth noting (as a Flash developer) that there has been a proliferation of BAD BAD Flash in the past couple of years as the app becomes more widely used. Many of the issues you run into are caused by poor programming, and not the browser itself. Some browsers are more robust at ignoring the bad programming, but on the whole many of these issues with crashes and instability are the fault of the developer.

 

[zim]

This issue could mostly likely on of the issues mentioned above but more times then not I find that the issue is the developers use of the old macromeida Flash detect scripts. The script would check for your Flash player preventing you access if you had an older version, which is good, but would only allow you to proceeded if you had that exact player, blocking you even if you had a newer player. If you are experienced and desperate to see the site then you could search the javaScript for the swf path.

Oops! Okay I should know better to respond without fully reading... so the above is an issue with some sites but you issue seems to lie deeper, most likely due to poor coding... yet I can only hope that the site owners tested it before launch. My suggestion would be to delete the Flash player from the user account as well as see if it in the root level then reinstall.

 

[kironin]

In my case, I am starting to think its poor code on the website.

I just encountered a case of what I thought was a detection problem with Safari on my Macbook running OS 10.4.8.

but after installing as the window suggested flash 9 and that not having any effect in Safari and then following the suggestion on this thread and uninstalling the flash player for all browers (I checked that indeed neither Safari or Firefox could handle flash page after running the uninstaller.), I reinstalled Flash 9 Universal. Afterwards both Safari and Firefox could handle the flash based home page fine of this piano site but in both browsers when you click on a piano the window that pops up tells you that you Simpleviewer needs flash player!

testing thepianostore.com