Flash player unable to proceed with the installation

Question

I have difficulties installing the latest version of Adobe Flash Player (14.0.0.125) on my Mac OS X 10.9.3 (Mavericks). Every time I do so, it fails at 90% with the following error message.

Error: Unable to proceed with the installation

When I go to troubleshoot the problem, I find that I have version 13.0.0.214 of Flash Player installed on my system, and that the (alleged) latest version (for Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8) is 13.0.0.201 (see following URL).

http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/installation-problems-flash-player-rvm.html

Further research has revealed that the latest version of Flash Player (for Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9) is 14.0.0.125 (see following URL).

http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/installation-problems-flash-player-mac.html#main-pars_heading_7

This is not the first time I have experienced problems upgrading Adobe Flash Player. I experienced a similar problem before upgrading to Mac OS X 10.9 except with different version numbers of the same software. That is, the version that was installed was greater than the version that was downloaded. Note that I did not experience this problem with prior versions of the OS (i.e. Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7).

This time I went one step further and used a different default browser to locate, download and install (what I presumed was the latest version of) Flash Player. No difference....

My question is, why does my default browser point to an older version of the installation software, and how can I resolve this? Also, correct me if I am wrong but, the reason I have a 'later' version of the software (that is, version 13.0.0.214) is due to the OS upgrade? I do not recall ever upgrading Adobe Flash Player....

Not sure whether or not this is relevant, but I also have Adobe Creative Suite 5 installed on my system (which was also successfully upgraded during all OS upgrades).

---

UPDATE: Did a bit more searching on the Adobe forums and found a link to a previous version of Adobe Flash Player version 13.0.0.223. Although not the latest version, I have successfully installed it. That is, after I uninstalled the older version of Flash Player. The problem I experienced sounds almost identical to this installation problem.

I am still, however, experiencing the same problem when upgrading to version 14 of Flash Player (even through System Preferences). Seems to be a problem with the installer, and not my system configuration since, to resolve this problem, I uninstall Flash Player (like before) and successfully installed Flash Player version 14 OS X, which I found and downloaded from the same web site. Note that all attempts to use the install program that updates Adobe Flash Player have failed.

---

UPDATE 2: It appears that the problem I described is a known issue regarding installing Flash Player on OS X 10.9 using the shim installer from get.adobe.com/flashplayer. For further details, see the following thread from the Adobe Forums.

Answer 1

I've have this problem come and go, and come back again.

FIX: The best fix so far for me is to go back to Flash Version 13. The say Flash Player Version 13 is in "extended release". I am on Mac osx 10.7.5 the last version of mac operating system for my machine.

Find it here: for browsers, it may have the strange name "plug in content debugger", I think the word "plug in" matters for browsers. The other "projector" versions I don't know about. The "plug in debugger version 13" fixed my safari problems.

https://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html

Fix 2: You must disregard the constant signaling to update to version 15 if you are getting it. The update to version 15 may load a broken version in the browser, then you have to uninstall it with their special utility and reinstall version 13. Get the uninstall download here (or search for adobe flash uninstall on the web):

http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-mac-os.html#main_uninstall

More Possible Explanation: Apparently the weird name "debugger" means they have debugged common problems with it. Essentially you are going back to the previous version since the new one has problems loading/working (keeps getting identified as out-of-date so it won't work) but they don't want to pull the new version off the market, can you imagine that mess. Thanks Adobe for the extended release we depend on it!

Here is adobe's comment on it:

EXTENDED SUPPORT RELEASE - FLASH PLAYER

What is the extended support release?

Adobe makes available a version of Flash Player called the "Extended Support Release" (ESR) to organizations that prefer Flash Player stability over new functionality. We have created a branch of the Flash Player code that we keep up to date with all of the latest security updates, but none of the new features or bug fixes available in our current release branch. This allows organizations to certify and stay secure on Flash Player with minimal effort.

10/14/2014 - Updated debugger and standalone versions of Flash Player. These players contain fixes for critical vulnerabilities identified in Security Bulletin APSB14-22. The latest version is 13.0.0.250 (Win and Mac). All users are encouraged to update to these latest versions.

Answer 2

Coming in late here. I've had this recurring problem, where FF disables Flash, then I forget how to get past the installer failure. The issue I've experienced is that the installer fails around the 90% mark with the error message that is the title of this thread.

The solution that's worked for me is to find and download the full package installer. There's no need to downgrade to an extended release version.

Just now I installed the latest Flash 18.x this way on Mountain Lion.

The issue seems to be the ActiveX based installer itself. By downloading the full installer, you get a familiar mac .dmg file, containing a familiar mac .pkg file. Click on this, and it runs a typical mac software install process.

You don't even have to stop the browser to complete the install, though it's a good idea once the install is finished.

Here is the latest download, and the page I found it on, which may or may not contain future full installer downloads. When selecting the dmg, it's the one Adobe calls "for system administrators".

http://www.adobe.com/sea/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html https://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/licensing/mac/install_flash_player_18_osx_pkg.dmg

Answer 3

On my MacBook Air with 10.9.3 I currently have the Adobe Flash Player-- Plug-in version 13.0.0.214 is installed.

It seems that is the correct version since I do Auto Update and leave it to Adobe to decide the right version for my system.

So I just did the update to version 14. For that I use the Adobe icon in System Preferences to check for updates (not a browser)

As first step Adobe will download and install a Adobe Flash Installer (package) in to your Utility folder.

Adobe 14 system requirements

Mac OS

Intel Core™ Duo 1.83GHz or faster processor
Mac OS X v10.6, v10.7, v10.8, or v10.9
Safari 5.0 or later, Mozilla Firefox 17, Google Chrome, or Opera 11
512MB of RAM; 128MB of graphics memory

Note: Your antivirus software must allow you to install software.

At some point it asked me to close some applications that use Adobe Flash Player. Once that is done the Installation will successfully complete.

You can try the Adobe troubleshooting to uninstall the older version on your Mac.

Answer 4

This is very helpful because I had a similar problem with the Flash update released in June 2014. I could download the update, etc., but it wouldn't install. No luck with uninstalling the program and trying to start anew. I successfully installed Flash a bit ago by clicking on the link to version 13.0.0.223 in the answer above.

Answer 5

This drove me nuts. I updated my Office Suite, and restarted the Mac.

It downloaded and installed without the above issue.