One of the benefits of using Google Chrome as your browser of choice is that it includes Adobe Flash along with its auto-updates. That caused me to give a double-take when logging into Yahoo! Mail. In the past few days it seems, a bug has been introduced to Yahoo! Mail that causes a popup layer to show to Chrome users. The error states:
Your browser is blocking Flash. You must have Flash 9.0 or higher installed and unblocked to run an openmail application. You can download and install the latest Flash Player here.
Since this was a new computer that I had just setup, I confirmed that Chrome was offering Adobe Flash by going to Chrome://flash which reports:
| Google Chrome | 18.0.1025.142 (m) |
| OS | Windows 7 SP1 64 bit |
| Flash plugin | 11,2,202,228 C:Program Files (x86)GoogleChromeApplication18.0.1025.142gcswf32.dll |
| Flash plugin | 11,2,202,228 C:WindowsSysWOW64MacromedFlashNPSWF32_11_2_202_228.dll (not used) |
Many other users have chimed in to confirm the problem (with various levels of details). An issue has been created for Chromium on Google Code and a thread is available on the Google Chrome forum. A Googler by the name of Toni confirmed the problem yesterday and updated the status to inform folks that they have reached out to Yahoo Mail on the issue.
Hey guys,
We’ve contacted Yahoo Mail about this issue, and waiting to hear back. As confirmed by many of you, this is not a Chrome-specific problem as this also happens on Firefox. We’re aware that most of you have enabled Flash Player versions that are higher than 9.0. It’s possible that Yahoo Mail may not be detecting the Flash type/version used in Chrome and Firefox correctly.
We’ll keep this thread updated as we know more.
Thanks!
Others are saying the problem also affects Firefox but I’m unable to reproduce it there. It also seems to be concluded that the issue is only affecting Windows Chrome users. Some are reporting in the thread that enabling Adobe Flash Player in Firefox resolves their issues. This can be done through Tools -> Addons -> Plugins -> Enable Shockwave Flash.
Another suggestion for Chrome users is to go to the Flash Player Settings in the Control Panel. Under the storage tab, click ‘delete all’ (local storage settings). One user reports that is has resolved the issue.
It seems Yahoo! Mail and Google Chrome users are unable to do anything about this as its a problem on Yahoo’s end. I would speculate that Yahoo! Mail implemented the code to check recently but for some reason it is not properly detecting Flash in Chrome. I also wonder if those seeing the issue in Firefox do actually have Flash Player installed. You can confirm that you have Flash installed and what version at: http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
This is just my shooting-from-the-hip guess and doesn’t change that Yahoo! Mail users will have to wait for a solution. Fortunately, you can just click ‘Ok’ on the message and then access your mail normally.
Check back to Google’s Chrome thread to see if there is any update to the issue if you’re affected.