The Following Plug-in Has Crashed: Shockwave Flash

In iFix by andre14 Comments

“The following plug-in has crashed: Shockwave Flash” error is usually caused by having multiple versions of incompatible Shockwave Flash plug-ins installed in Chrome. To fix this error, you need to disable the redundant copies of Flash plug-ins and make sure there is only one instance of Shockwave(Flash) plug-in is running.

I love Chrome so I use it as my main web browser on Mac, even though it takes up a lot of my RAM. When logging into Google+ or starting a YouTube video, Flash crashes reliably every time with an error message: “The Following Plug-in Has Crashed: Shockwave Flash”. Using FireFox or Safari does not produce the same error; however, having to switch browsers is a real pain.

The fix to “The Following Plug-in Has Crashed: Shockwave Flash” error is surprisingly easy

  1. You can see all the plug-ins installed under Chrome by typing “about:plug-ins” in the address field. The “about:plugins” command will lead you to the Chrome Plug-ins page.
  2. Click on the “Details” button on the top-right corner to see the details of each installed plug-in.
  3. Locate “Flash” plug-in and see if you have more than one copy of Shockwave Flash installed. Chrome has native support for Flash because it ships with its own Shockwave Flash plugin.  If you also have downloaded and installed Flash from Adobe, you could end up having multiple copies of Shockwave Flash plugins in your Chrome; one  from the Chrome itself, one installed by the Flash application you downloaded from Adobe.
  4. If you have more than one copy of Shockwave Flash plug-ins installed and they aren’t compatible, you would likely to see the “The Following Plug-in Has Crashed: Shockwave Flash” error. To fix it, disable the one Chrome installed, then restart Chrome. Voila, you can once again watch videos from right within Chrome. [Note: You can also choose to use the one from Adobe and disable the one that comes with Chrome. The idea is you want to make sure there is only one Shockwave Flash plug-in is active and running.]

Comments

  1. Reply

    I found the problem! I had put a hyphen in the word plugin. Apparently Google didn’t like that. I made some changes and restarted Chrome. We’ll see how it goes.

  2. Reply

    I posted my problem here in December and was able to fix it–temporarily. Now I am faced with a new error message in the yellow bar. It says: “could not load Shockwave Flash.”

    So I followed the above instructions (about:plug-ins) and got the following message:
    “The webpage at chrome://plug-ins/ might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.”

    My question is, if I can’t get to the web page, how can I fix the problem? Does anyone have a workaround?

  3. Reply

    I have 3 versions too, one is the PepparFlash ( don’t know where that came from) the others are the Google Chrome plugin and the Adobe Flash Player which ones do I disable?

  4. Reply

    In my previous post, I showed Three versions of Shockwave Flash. I just found another plugin listed separately from the other three. I am totally confused as to which ones to disable and which one to enable. The following is the fourth entry. (See the others in my December 7, 2012 at 11:04 post).

    Adobe Shockwave Player – Version: 11.6.8r638
    Adobe Shockwave for Director Netscape plug-in, version 11.6.8
    Name: Shockwave for Director
    Description: Adobe Shockwave for Director Netscape plug-in, version 11.6.8
    Version: 11.6.8r638
    Location: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/DirectorShockwave.plugin
    Type: NPAPI
    Disable
    MIME types:
    MIME type Description File extensions
    application/x-director Shockwave for Director
    .dcr .dir .dxr

    1. Reply

      Hi Sarah,
      Only leave the following 2 plugins enabled and disabled others. If problem still exists, disable (A) as well.

      (A)
      Adobe Shockwave Player – Version: 11.6.8r638
      Adobe Shockwave for Director Netscape plug-in, version 11.6.8
      Name: Shockwave for Director
      Description: Adobe Shockwave for Director Netscape plug-in, version 11.6.8
      Version: 11.6.8r638
      Location: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/DirectorShockwave.plugin
      Type: NPAPI
      Disable
      MIME types:
      MIME type Description File extensions
      application/x-director Shockwave for Director
      .dcr .dir .dxr

      ============================================
      (B)
      Name: Shockwave Flash
      Description: Shockwave Flash 11.5 r502
      Version: 11.5.502.110
      Location: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin
      Type: NPAPI
      Disable
      MIME types:
      MIME type Description File extensions
      application/x-shockwave-flash Shockwave Flash
      .swf
      application/futuresplash FutureSplash Player
      .spl

      ====================================================

  5. Reply

    I have three versions. Can you tell me which one to keep?

    Adobe Flash Player (3 files) – Version: 11.5.31.2
    Shockwave Flash 11.5 r31
    Name: Shockwave Flash
    Description: Shockwave Flash 11.5 r31
    Version: 11.5.31.2
    Location: /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/Versions/23.0.1271.95/Google Chrome Framework.framework/Internet Plug-Ins/PepperFlash/PepperFlashPlayer.plugin
    Type: PPAPI (out-of-process)
    Disable
    MIME types:
    MIME type Description File extensions
    application/x-shockwave-flash Shockwave Flash
    .swf
    application/futuresplash FutureSplash Player
    .spl
    Name: Shockwave Flash
    Description: Shockwave Flash 11.5 r502
    Version: 11.5.502.110
    Location: /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/Versions/23.0.1271.95/Google Chrome Framework.framework/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player Plugin for Chrome.plugin
    Type: NPAPI
    Disable
    MIME types:
    MIME type Description File extensions
    application/x-shockwave-flash Shockwave Flash
    .swf
    application/futuresplash FutureSplash Player
    .spl
    Name: Shockwave Flash
    Description: Shockwave Flash 11.5 r502
    Version: 11.5.502.110
    Location: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin
    Type: NPAPI
    Disable
    MIME types:
    MIME type Description File extensions
    application/x-shockwave-flash Shockwave Flash
    .swf
    application/futuresplash FutureSplash Player
    .spl

    1. Reply

      Hi Sarah,

      I had the same issue, you can either keep the one’s with Chrome in the location name of it and disable the other one OR (like me) Disable the Chrome versions and leave the one that does not have Google chrome in the location name.

      Hope this helps

      Kev

  6. Reply

    I had many problems with Shockware this past months. I can’t watch videos, except full screen, or play games. (Only when I update my Google Chrome) I tried to let my game open and minimized for a few days but on the second one, it said that Shockware crashed. So when I update my Chrome, everything works fine, but after a few days, it crashes again. The thing is, I tried those steps but I only have one Flash installed… Do you have any other solution why it would do that?
    Thank you!

  7. Reply

    I have problems with Shockwave crashing for the last 3 months. I have 3 Flash files when I see detaileds about plug=ins – they are:

    Flash (3 files) – Version: 11,2,202,235
    Shockwave Flash 11.2 r202
    Name: Shockwave Flash
    Description: Shockwave Flash 11.2 r202
    Version: 11,2,202,235
    Location: C:\Users\Lisa\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\19.0.1084.52\gcswf32.dll
    Type: NPAPI
    Disable
    MIME types:
    MIME type Description File extensions
    application/x-shockwave-flash Adobe Flash movie
    .swf
    application/futuresplash FutureSplash movie
    .spl
    Name: Shockwave Flash
    Description: Shockwave Flash 11.2 r31
    Version: 11.2.31.144
    Location: C:\Users\Lisa\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\PepperFlash\11.2.31.144\pepflashplayer.dll
    Type: PPAPI (out-of-process)
    Disable
    MIME types:
    MIME type Description File extensions
    application/x-shockwave-flash Shockwave Flash
    .swf
    application/futuresplash Shockwave Flash
    .spl
    Name: Shockwave Flash
    Description: Shockwave Flash 11.2 r202
    Version: 11,2,202,235
    Location: C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\NPSWF32_11_2_202_235.dll
    Type: NPAPI
    Disable
    MIME types:
    MIME type Description File extensions
    application/x-shockwave-flash Adobe Flash movie
    .swf
    application/futuresplash FutureSplash movie
    .spl
    Disable Always allowed

    At first the 2nd was enabled but after looking at solutions, I disabled and enabled the first one. It still didn’t help.

    Can you?

    thanks, Lisa

    1. Reply

      Lisa, it looks like you are using Chrome on Windows. Try disable both the 2, 3 and only leave the first one active. If still not working, disable the first one and the second one, only leave the third one active. You need to restart Chrome each time you make changes. Good luck.

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