Wed, 27 Feb 2013 Blocked Plug-in in iPlayer, 4OD, how do I get it back?

You might have decided to take advantage of the fact that Apple had recently blocked Adobe Flash on the Mac after a series of vulnerabilities. However, while it might mean you are being greeted by fewer adverts, you will no doubt have noticed that iPlayer, 4OD and other on demand services no longer work. 

If you decide it's time to go back to Flash, here's what you'll need to do. 

Click on the 'Blocked Plug-In' notice and you will see a message saying that your version of Adobe Flash Player is out of date and "does not include the latest security updates and has been blocked". It will urge you to download an updated version from Abobe. 

There's a link to download Flash. Click that and it will take you to Adobe's Flash Player webpage where you can ‘download now’. 

When we followed this process we found we were downloading Adobe Flash Player 11.4 (11.6.602.171). 

After the installer file had been downloaded and saved, a window containing the Flash Player installer appeared. We then double-clicked the installer to start the installation process

Once you have updated Adobe flags up the fact that you can choose the method by which Adobe alerts you to updates. For example, you can choose for Adobe to automatically install updates, or Adobe can notify you, or you can "Never check for updates" which Adobe doesn't recommend. 

However, having done this we were still having no luck with Flash plug-in. We restarted the machine and still nothing. 

Our next step was to try to manually update. We opened System Preferences and tapped on the Flash Player icon in the "Other" section. Once the Flash Player preferences opened, we clicked on the 'Advanced' tab and then the "Check Now" button. That told us that an update was available (even though we thought we’d downloaded it). We agreed to download it and were greeted with a screen explaining that the update includes online security and stability updates. We selected ‘Install’. 

Eventually we had the chance to install the update. This time it was Flash Player 11.6. 

It looks like it had been a while since we’d last bothered to update Flash. 

The good news is it now works. 

Adobe has issued two fixes to Flash in the past month. Towards the beginning of February it released an emergency update for Flash Player on all platforms after two zero-day bugs were discovered in the wild targeting Windows and Mac OS X computers. Then earlier today we reported that Adobe has patched new vulnerabilities in Flash Player that hackers are now exploiting in attacks aimed at Firefox users.

Related: 

Adobe springs emergency Flash update, says hackers hitting Firefox

How to disable Java on your Mac

Adobe to release emergency patches for Reader, Acrobat

Adobe releases patches for Flash Player and Shockwave Player

Adobe releases emergency patch for Windows and OS X systems

Apple blocks Flash on Macs