What to do when Adobe Flash crashes in Google Chrome

I use Google Chrome as my default browser. Several times I’ve had Adobe Flash crash right in the middle of doing something important. It seems that Flash becoming unresponsive in Chrome is quite common. And it happens for a reason.

Chrome comes with an integrated version of Flash installed. If you also have Firefox installed and you install Flash for Firefox, it also installs as a plugin in Chrome – and this can cause conflicts and problems when you view a page using Flash.

So here’s how to fix it.

Open Chrome

Type about:plugins into the 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.

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 grayed out)

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

Download  the latest Adobe standalone version of Flash from here  (this is the Firefox/Chrome version) and save to your computer. Close Chrome and then install the newest standalone version of Flash you just downloaded.

Now restart Chrome and go to the Adobe Flash Player test page at http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/  to make sure Flash is installed and working correctly.

Since you have disabled the integrated version of Chrome,  you will need make sure the standalone Adobe version is updated regularly. This is important because outdated versions of Flash leave you open to vulnerabilities. To enable automatic updates for Flash, go to Control Panel\Flash Player and open the Flash Player Settings Manager. Now click on the Advanced tab and in the Updates section select “Check for updates automatically (Recommended).”