Apple has officially dropped support for Adobe Flash from the macOS version of Safari 14 released on September 17 2020 for macOS 10.14 Mojave & macOS 10.15 Catalina. In February 2012, Adobe announced it would discontinue development of Flash Player on Linux for all browsers, except Google Chrome, by dropping support for NPAPI and using only. I cannot find it in Safari Preferences Websites Plugins because the Plugins section does not appear. Is there a way to get it to work on Catalina? I feel like Apple released Catalina almost exclusively to prevent anybody from being able to use even this last version of Flash, to avoid any legal action by Adobe. I am aware that this operating system is the last one to be compatible with 32-bit software. When I checked for Legacy Software, the only part of Adobe Flash Player that was 32-bit was the Adobe Flash Player Install Manager. Tonight I tried reinstalling Adobe Flash Player, in an attempt to update the Flash Player Install Manager to 64-bit.

Adobe has finally ended support for Flash Player from 1 January 2021, and it will altogether disable the plug-in from 12 January. However, the software will continue to remain on your system. It is wiser to uninstall Adobe Flash Player from your Mac. Here’s why;

Why should you remove Adobe Flash from your Mac?

In 2017, Adobe asked developers to explore other open formats for Flash-like content, as it would seize development & distribution of the Flash Player by the end of 2020. And now that the day has come, Adobe strongly suggests that users remove Flash from their Mac & PCs as:

“Uninstalling Flash Player will help to secure your system since Adobe does not intend to issue Flash Player updates or security patches after the EOL date.”

So, to ensure that your Mac is safe from any harm, you should quickly uninstall the software.

• How to uninstall Adobe Flash Player on your Mac

While not too complicated, there are a few steps involved in the process. First and foremost, confirm if your device has Flash or not. Click on the Apple icon → System Preferences → look for the Flash icon.

A missing icon means your device does not have Flash, and you are good to go. But if it is present, move on to the next step.

Determine your Mac’s OS version

1. Click the Apple icon & select About This Mac.
2. Here, note the version of your macOS.

Depending upon your macOS version, download the correct Adobe Flash Player uninstaller

How to uninstall Adobe Flash Player on your Mac

First, you have to download and run uninstaller on your Mac

• 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
• Mac OS X, version 10.3 and earlier: uninstall_flash_player_osx_10.2.dmg

Uninstall Adobe Flash on Mac OS X 10.4 or later

1. Double click on the downloaded file to run it.
2. In the new window, double-click the Uninstaller icon, click Open if it asks for permission.
3. Here, select Uninstall, and if prompted, enter your devicepassword.
4. Close or Force Quit all open browsers.
   Note: Don’t quit the uninstaller window; it will stop the uninstallation process.
5. Once the uninstallation is completed, click Done.
6. Open Finder, press Command+Shift+G, copy-paste this path /Library/Preferences/Macromedia/FlashPlayer, and delete this directory.
7. Again, press Command+Shift+G, copy-paste this path /Library/Caches/Adobe/Flash Player, and delete this directory as well.
8. To verify, restart your Mac and open this link in your browser to check Flash Player’s status.

Run Adobe Flash uninstaller on your Mac OS X 10.1 to 10.3

1. Double-click to open the uninstaller and then double-click the Uninstaller icon to run it.
2. Click Continue to start the process.
3. Close all open browsers and other apps that might use Flash Player.
4. Once completed, the uninstaller will close automatically.
5. Restart, open the browser, & check the status via this website.

If you feel this is too much of a hassle, you can use an app cleaner for Mac to get rid of Flash.

Uninstalled Adobe Flash Player successfully on Mac!

Flash has been an integral part of my growing days, and deleting it from my Mac, certainly makes me nostalgic. But it is what it is! If you are in the same boat, check out the Internet Archive website, as they plan to preserve Flash games and animations forever.

What are your childhood memories with Flash? Share them in the comment section below.

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Note

A new release is available which fixes bug 4324516: Acrobat cannot launch if PDFLib TET Plugin is present. If you’re using v1 - Jan 2021, migrate to the latest version described below.

Downloads¶

To access the downloads:

1. Go to https://console.adobe.io/downloads.

2. Download the SDK:

• Windows: SDK version v2 - Mar 2021

• Macintosh: SDK version v2 - Mar 2021

Installers

The 32-bit Windows and Mac platform uses separate installers for Reader and Acrobat. Windows 64-bit installers combine the two into a single installer.

• Adobe Acrobat Reader DC: 32 and 64 bit

• Adobe Acrobat Pro DC: 32 and 64 bit

System requirements¶

The SDK supports the following:

• Windows: Samples have been upgraded to compile using VS2019 for Windows 7, 8, and 10.

• Macintosh: With this release Acrobat SDK samples could be compiled using X-CODE 9.2. Target Mac OS Deployment version is 10.11.

Changes for this release¶

All code samples, tools, and other API dependent assets are updated for compatibility with the latest compilers.

Windows¶

• General changes for 64-bit Windows:

  • You must upgrade 32-bit plugins to 64-bit for them to work with the 64-bit app.

  • The SDK provides 64-bit public headers to 3rd party plug-in developers so that they can successfully create or upgrade their plugins.

  • Acrobat and Reader use the same, single installer. The unified application determines the mode in which it’s running (Reader/Acrobat) at run time. Plugins must dynamically check the whether the app is in Acrobat or Reader mode in order to determine what functionality should be available.

  • The application can transition from Reader mode to Acrobat mode without a relaunch, so plugins must react to mode notifications accordingly.

  • If any Acrobat-specific HFT is invoked in Reader Mode, it could throw a run-time exception. Plugins need to ensure Acrobat specific HFTs are not invoked while the application is running in Reader mode.

  • Existing plugins with different binaries for Acrobat and Reader must combine into a single binary. Product differentiation (Reader vs Acrobat) at install time is not possible.

• Installation path

  • 64-bit: /Program Files/Adobe/<app name>/Acrobat/plug_ins

  • 32-bit: /Program Files (x86)/Adobe/<app name>/Acrobat/plug_ins

  • There is no “Acrobat Reader” specific path for 64-bit; there is for 32-bit.

  • The app name in the path is Acrobat DC.

• Samples

  • App Wizard: The App wizard has been upgraded and will only work with VS2019.

  • wxPlugin: Upgraded to use wxWidgets 3.1.3. Developers must compile wxwidgets and copy the generated libs to NonAdobeSupportwxWidgetswinlib and header files to NonAdobeSupportwxWidgetswininclude. File paths may vary with a user’s project configuration.

  • Removed unsupported CommonInterfaceAIR.air from snippetRunner Sample.

  • All existing samples are ported from Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 to Microsoft Visual Studio 2019. Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 is recommended to create and upgrade 64-bit native plugins.

  • Public header and sample plugins are updated.

• Config folder: A new folder contains the common Visual Studio Settings for import by all VS project solutions: AdobeAcrobatDCSDKVersion1Config.

• Code changes:

• New data type

The following new data scalar type is added to the data types:

Adobe Flash Player Para Mac Catalina

Macintosh¶

• Plugin samples

  • MultiTab: To run the sample, place multitab_icons.pdf (from the SDK package) in /users/{username}/documents

  • wxPlugin: This plugin is delivered as Windows only due to dependency on the wxwidget library in Macintosh. TBD Microsoft ie for mac os.

• AppleScript: WatermarkJsoAs: you must place the package input files present on the desktop. On script execution, users are prompted to specify an output folder in which to save the stamped file.

• Tools

  • verifyUrl.acroplugin: Removed since it uses HITToolBox which is deprecated by Mac.

  • Sign Plugin.exe: Upgraded to 64 Bit to support Mac OS Catalina.

Adobe Flash Player For Macos Catalina 10.15

Known issues¶

• Mac only: Acrobat crashes while running media in RunMediaPlayers.pdf

• Mac only: Flash player crashes while running media in ScriptEvents.pdf

• “SHA1 algorithm warning message” appears when signing using DocSign SDK sample

• When protected mode is ON:

  • PDF file will open in a temporary window while using StaticViewVC.exe/StaticViewVB.exe

  • WatermarkJsoVB.exe will not work

Other issues:

• 4301819: PDDomView present in Acrobat SDK sometimes doesn’t work

• 4316221: Snippet Runner and Weblink Demo are not working on 64-Bit Acrobat due to dependency on the CommonInterfaceAIR.air

• 4315936: [Protected mode] DMS integration sample is not working

• 4315935: [Protected mode] Error coming while running ClienApp.exe for the DDE server sample

• 4324516: Acrobat cannot launch if PDFLib TET Plugin is present. Note: this bug is fixed in the 3/11/2021 update (v2 - Mar 2021).