Likewise, Google Chrome will automatically update Flash Player to version 23.0.0.185. Safari on macOS Sierra deactivates Flash by default, only turning on the plug-in when user requested.
“In Safari 10, set to ship with macOS Sierra, Apple plans to disable common plug-ins like Adobe Flash, Java, Silverlight, and QuickTime by default in an effort to focus on HTML5 content. When trying to view Flash enabled content that does not have a HTML5 version, websites always provide quick links to download Flash from Adobe’s site. When trying to view Flash enabled content that does not have a HTML5 version, websites always provide quick links to download Flash from Adobe’s site.
The succession of vulnerabilities found in Adobe’s Flash Player shows no signs of dying down: not a month goes by without Adobe releasing another yet emergency update for Flash to patch a bunch of newly discovered vulnerabilities (measuring in the dozens).
Some of them can be pretty nasty as they introduce new attack vectors for spyware, ransomware, trojans and other malicious applications that you don’t want anywhere near your computer.
A few years ago, Flash Player was impossible to avoid because a bulk of web video was encoded in Adobe’s proprietary Flash format, but not anymore: YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and many other popular web services now use HTML5-based video players that work in any modern browser.
While Apple does block older, vulnerable versions of Flash in the Safari browser on macOS, you should do yourself a favor and remove Flash Player from your Mac using step-by-step instructions provided in this tutorial.
How to remove Adobe Flash from your Mac
1) Navigate to the /Applications/Utilities/ folder on your Mac and launch the Adobe Flash Player Install Manager app.
Tip: If you don’t see the app and are positive that Flash Player is in fact installed on your Mac, download the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller from Adobe’s website.
2) Click the Uninstall button to begin the process.
3) Type the administrator password for your OS X user account and click OK to continue.
Flash Player is now being uninstalled from this Mac. You cannot cancel the uninstaller at this point. Don’t restart or turn off your computer until the uninstaller finishes.
4) After the uninstaller removes Adobe Flash software from your computer, click Done.
And that’s all there’s to it, folks!
Living in a Flash-free world!
Congratulations, your Mac is now Flash-free and your computer is no longer prone to Flash vulnerabilities—even if you try to access Flash content in a browser—as long as you don’t reinstall Flash Player.
Don’t you shed a tear—you’ll be better off without Flash altogether!
Verifying that Flash Player uninstallation is complete
After running the uninstaller, your system should be free of Flash Player and its associated web plug-in. To verify that Flash uninstallation has been completed successfully, first restart your Mac by choosing Restart in the Apple menu.
Then, open your browser and check the status of Flash Player on Adobe’s website. If Flash Player is no longer installed on this Mac, the page will produce an error message.
Accessing Flash content without Flash Player
As we mentioned, you can watch virtually any video on the web without needing Flash Player.
In moving away from Flash-encoded video, web developers have embraced HTML5 video en masse. For starters, HTML5-based video works in any modern web browser without needing a dedicated plug-in.
In addition, HTML5 video takes advantage of your computer’s chips to decode content in hardware. Not only does that allow for smooth video playback than in Flash Player, but also does so in a power-efficient manner that helps conserve energy.
With that in mind, if you stumble upon a piece of Flash content on the web that you want to view but hate the idea of re-installing Flash Player, simply use Google Chrome for these purposes. Google’s browser has built-in Flash Player, but it’s sandboxed to prevent Flash vulnerabilities from affecting the rest of your system.
macOS blocks outdated Flash versions
Out-of-date versions of Adobe Flash Player that do not include the latest security updates are automatically disabled in Safari by macOS to help keep your Mac secure and help limit exposure to potential zero day exploits from web plug-in enabled content.
If you see the message “Blocked plug-in,” “Flash Security Alert” or “Flash out-of-date” when attempting to view Flash content in Safari, that’s Apple warning you that you’re using an out-of-date version of the Adobe Flash Player plug-in on your computer.
More Mac tips? Browse our tutorials archive.
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Alongside various new features (Siri, Auto Unlock, Apple Pay) coming in macOS Sierra, Apple’s next major desktop operating system, it also ships with the brand new version of Safari, Safari 10. Safari 10 introduces a major change in the way the browser handles plugins. In short, proprietary plugins like Adobe Flash will be disabled by default when browsing the web.
This means that websites will serve modern HTML5 representations of content as often as possible as they will not be able to detect an installation of Flash at all. Safari is smart however — it will allow you to enable Flash temporarily on demand …
When trying to view Flash enabled content that does not have a HTML5 version, websites always provide quick links to download Flash from Adobe’s site. With the new plugin behaviour in Safari, the browser will override clicks on these links to show a special new modal sheet.
This sheet allows the user to enable Flash on a per-use basis or enable the plugin site-wide. After confirming, Safari loads the Flash content as normal. This is how popular third-party extensions like Click-To-Flash work. Apple is banking on most websites already having HTML5 versions of content (usually video) available but it is trying to make the less-likely case as inconvenient as possible … only loading Flash lazily when required.
This leads to better performance, better power efficiency and better security by minimizing Flash process usage on the Mac. Similar behaviour has also been bundled for other types of proprietary web plugins, although Flash is by far the most common case. In addition to these changes, Safari is assisting developers with the transition away from HTML5 — adding a few key APIs for functions that previously were only possible through plugins.
A big roadblock here was copy and paste; websites would include tiny Flash applets just to be able to manipulate the pasteboard. With the execCommand API in Safari 10 this is possible in HTML5 standalone.
Adobe Flash Player Free Download For Mac Sierra
Safari 10 will be released with macOS Sierra in the fall. Developers can find out more about optimizing websites for Safari 10 on the WebKit blog.