I have installed Adobe Flash from a questionable webpage. How do I completely uninstall the Adobe Flash Player? When I finish uninstalling the Adobe Flash Player, what is the acceptable site to go to download the correct version? Do I need to do anything other than use an uninstaller to remove the Flash Player completely? Re-Titled by Moderator. Here’s how uninstall Flash Player on a Mac: Find your macOS version by going to Apple menu About this Mac. Download the appropriate uninstaller tool for your OS version. For macOS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and later, you can use this uninstaller. If you’re running macOS 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.5 (Leopard), use this uninstaller instead.
These instructions are NOT applicable to Flash Player included with Google Chrome. Visit the Flash Player Help page for instructions on enabling (or disabling) Flash Player in various browsers.
If you use Windows, see Uninstall Flash Player | Windows.
If your Flash Player installation was not successful, use the following solution to reinstall.
Click the Apple icon and choose About This Mac.
The Mac OS version appears in the About This Mac dialog.
2. Run the uninstaller applicable to your Mac OS version
- Run the uninstaller on Mac OS X 10.4 and later, including macOS
Note:
Beginning with Flash Player 11.5, uninstalling the Flash Player resets the AutoUpdateDisable and SilentAutoUpdateEnable settings in mms.cfg to their default values:
- AutoUpdateDisable=0
- SilentAutoUpdateEnable=0
If you are running the Flash Player uninstaller as part of your deployment process, redeploy any custom changes to either AutoUpdateDisable or SilentAutoUpdateEnable.
Run the uninstaller on Mac OS X 10.4 and later, including macOS
Download the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller:
- Mac OS X, version 10.6 and later: uninstall_flash_player_osx.dmg
- Mac OS X, version 10.4 and 10.5: uninstall_flash_player_osx.dmg
The uninstaller is downloaded to the Downloads folder of your browser by default.
In Safari, choose Window > Downloads.
If you are using Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion), click the Downloads icon displayed on the browser.
To open the uninstaller, double-click it in the Downloads window.
Note: If the Flash Player installer window does not appear, choose Go > Desktop in the Finder. Scroll down to the Devices section and click Uninstall Flash Player.
To run the uninstaller, double-click the Uninstaller icon in the window. If you see a message asking if you want to open the uninstaller file, click Open.
- Bookmark or print this page so that you can use the rest of these instructions after you close your browser.
To close all browsers, either click the browser name in the Uninstaller dialog, or close each browser manually and then click Retry.
Note: Do not click Quit in the Uninstaller window. It stops the uninstallation process.
After you close the browsers, the uninstaller continues automatically until the uninstallation is complete. When you see the message notifying you that the uninstallation succeeded, click Done.
Delete the following directories:
- <home directory>/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player
- <home directory>/Library/Caches/Adobe/Flash Player
Download the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller:
- Mac OS X, version 10.3 and earlier: uninstall_flash_player_osx_10.2.dmg (1.3 MB) (updated 05/27/08)
Choose Window > Downloads to view the downloaded uninstaller.
Save the uninstaller file in a convenient location.
To open the uninstaller, double-click it in the Downloads window.
To run the uninstaller, double-click the Uninstaller icon in the window. If requested, enter your computer user name and password and click OK.
Bookmark or print this page so that you can use the rest of these instructions after you close your browser. Close all browsers and other applications that use Flash Player, including instant messaging applications, SWF files, and projectors (EXE files that play SWF files). Otherwise, the uninstaller cannot finish (even though it appears to finish).
Once the uninstaller finishes, the window closes automatically.
You can verify that uninstallation is complete by following these steps:
Open your browser and check the status of Flash Player.
Adobe has officially killed off Flash Player, the buggy, hated, security vulnerability of a web browser plug-in that was once widely used for viewing rich content like games, videos and other media online.
The writing has been on the wall for a long time. Although Flash played a crucial role in the early days of the Internet — it used to be, for example, the standard way YouTube played its videos — it has become obsolete. Open web standards like HTML5 made it possible to embed content directly onto webpages.
Even when it was still useful, it was far from universally loved. When some iPhone users bemoaned the lack of Flash on their devices, rendering some websites unusable, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs refused to give in. In 2010, he penned a scathing open letter about the software, saying iPhones and iPads would never support Flash, which for years was plagued with bugs and security vulnerabilities.
That marked the beginning of the end. A year later, Adobe said it would no longer develop the software on mobile devices.
Mac Flash Uninstall Program
Flash Player remained a ubiquitous tool for desktop across multiple web browsers, with more than 1 billion users just a decade ago, making it a particularly useful vulnerability for hackers to exploit. The software was a notorious target for hackers and resulted in numerous high-profile security breaches.
As HTML5 began to overtake Flash, usage dwindled. In 2014, 80% of Google Chrome users visited a site with Flash code. That fell to just 17% by 2017.
Adobe announced its plan to discontinue support for Flash three years ago — and the program's 'end-of-life' day finally came on December 31. While some operating systems and browsers have already discontinued Flash, Adobe is encouraging people to check that Flash Player is uninstalled on their devices immediately 'to help protect their systems,' because it will no longer be getting security updates.
The company has published uninstall instructions for both Windows and Mac users. Here's how it works:
- Download an uninstaller application for Flash Player. (There is a different one for each operating system; and if you're on Mac, pay attention to which OS version you're using.)
- Run the uninstaller. (On Windows, you'll first need to close out all browsers and programs that use Flash. On iOS, you'll do that as part of the process.)
- Then, you can verify that the uninstallation was successful by restarting your computer and then checking the status of Flash Player on your computer from the Adobe website.
Mac Flash Uninstall Mac
So long, Flash Player.