Do you get a blank or black screen when trying to play YouTube videos or flash content in Mac OS X? When I searched online for a solution, I went through several troubleshooting steps, but none of them seem to fix the blank video player error. However, after doing a bit of extra troubleshooting, I found a workaround, using some basic troubleshooting steps.
Problems with flash videos or games not working in browsers like Safari, Firefox or Google Chrome in Mac OS X mainly revolve around a combination of settings and compatibility issues with Adobe Flash Player, the software for play these web-based videos. Using these troubleshooting steps, you should be able to make flash videos and games work on your Mac computer.
Please note that YouTube actually doesn’t use flash anymore, so no one really has this problem anymore. However, there are many other websites that still rely on flash, so the steps below may help resolve issues on those sites.
Table of Contents
1. Uninstall and reinstall Adobe Flash Player (make sure you have the latest version installed)
This may and may not fix flash video problems, but it’s well worth a try. Start by going to Adobe’s official website and download the flash Player uninstaller for OS X. Launch the uninstaller and simply uninstall Flash Player from your Mac and restart the computer.
After your computer restarts and you’re signed in, go to Adobe.com to download the latest version of Flash Player. Reinstall and check if YouTube video is working or not.
2. Enable Flash in Chrome/Safari
In Chrome, click the three dots in the top right and click Setting. Scroll down and click Advanced to expand it. Below Privacy & Securityclick Content settings.
Scroll down Speed and then toggle the control so it says Ask first (recommended).
If you’ve installed Flash for Safari but it’s still not working, you may have to enable the plugin first. To do this, open Safari and then click on Safari at the top and click Interests.
Click Webpage tab and there should be a section called Additional at the bottom of the left panel. Make sure that Adobe Flash Player is checked. If it’s not listed there, make sure to visit the Adobe Flash website and download the latest Flash version first.
By default, you will have to enable this on a site-by-site basis. You can see a list of enabled sites, and at the bottom you can choose to enable or disable Flash for all other sites.
3. Reset Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Clear Cache
If Flash Player is still not working properly, you can try clearing your browser’s cache, exiting the browser, and restarting it. Some people have reported that the video will work properly when clearing the cache.
In Chrome, you can click the three dots, then click More tools and choose Clear access data. Be sure to check Cached images and files and then click Delete data button.
4. Enable Javascript and Disable Popup Blocker
Much Flash content requires Javascript, so if you have an extension that’s blocking Javascript, you’ll need to disable it. You also need to go into your browser settings and make sure Javascript is enabled.
You can also try disabling the pop-up blocker for the specific site you’re having issues with. Pop-up blockers should not be completely turned off as it will make your computer less secure.
5. Turn off Flash hardware acceleration.
When on the screen of a blank YouTube video not working properly, right click the area where the video would normally show up to display the Flash Player context menu. Choose Setting options from the menu. Unchecked option Enable hardware acceleration and click Close button.
If you don’t see the right click content menu, just go to this page Adobe’s help page and right click on the Flash logo. If you don’t see the Flash logo, it means Flash is not installed properly.
Close the browser completely, relaunch it, and check the Flash content again to see if it plays.
6. Check YouTube HTML 5 Settings
YouTube now fully supports HTML 5 and as long as you are running the latest version of your browser, all features will be fully supported as well.
If you visit this URL, https://www.youtube.com/html5, you’ll see check marks for all the different HTML 5 features. If something is not checked here, it means that your browser is very old and needs to be updated.
Hopefully this post will help you troubleshoot blank video player and Flash apps not working in OS X. If you have any other troubleshooting suggestions, please leave a comment. Interesting!
