ClickToFlash

Usage Notes and Common Problems/Questions with ClickToFlash (Internet Plug-In)

Usage Notes:

Contextual menu: the gear in the upper-left corner of any unloaded Flash box allows access to ClickToFlash's contextual menu. This menu allows you to do advanced things like edit ClickToFlash's whitelist, specify settings, and load all Flash on the page.

ClickToFlash menu: in certain applications, ClickToFlash will activate a menu item in the application's menu. For example, Safari has a ClickToFlash menu located at [Safari -> ClickToFlash], near the "Preferences..." menu item. This gives access to ClickToFlash's settings window and a few other features. Make sure to visit a page that has Flash on it to get this menu.

Uninstalling ClickToFlash: for versions 1.5 and later, go to the Settings window and click the "Uninstall ClickToFlash" button. For versions prior to 1.5, navigate to ~/Library/Internet Plug-ins/ in the Finder, where ~ is your home folder, and delete the item named "ClickToFlash.webplugin" (or "ClickToFlash.plugin").

Updating Troubles:

ClickToFlash has some troubles updating because of how it loads into other applications. If you are having problems updating ClickToFlash via the automatic updater, please download and install the latest ClickToFlash update manually from the website via the download links at the top of this page.

In particular, if you were automatically updated to ClickToFlash 1.5 or 1.5.1, you'll need to manually download and upgrade to 1.5.2 or later yourself.

We are in the process of fixing all these problems for ClickToFlash 1.6, but for now you'll have to bear with us.

Installation Troubles:

When installing ClickToFlash, you may receive this error if you've installed ClickToFlash before:

Installer could not install files in /tmp

This is a known problem with pre-release versions of 1.4 and 1.5. To fix it, open the Terminal (located in the Applications folder), and type in the following command, followed by a return:

sudo pkgutil --forget com.github.rentzsch.clicktoflash.pkg

A password may be required. If it asks for your password, type it in (you will not see any letters, numbers, or bullets), and then press return again.

You may also see this error after issuing the aforementioned Terminal command:

No receipt for 'com.github.rentzsch.clicktoflash.pkg' found at '/'

Don't worry, that's OK. ClickToFlash should now install normally.

Further problems:

If the installer is still giving you troubles, and you're running under a non-admin user, type the following terminal command, followed by a return:

su admin_user -c 'touch /Library/Receipts/ClickToFlash.pkg'

replacing "admin_user" with the short user name of an admin user. You will need to enter a password as well, and then type return again. Now attempt ClickToFlash installation again.

PandoraJam Troubles:

If you're having troubles with PandoraJam, make sure you are running ClickToFlash 1.5 or later, and upgrade to PandoraJam 1.4 (build 288) or later.

Application Whitelist:

ClickToFlash 1.5 and higher now include an application whitelist. For apps that absolutely require Flash, ClickToFlash may cause the app to not function at all, or it may cause severe inconveniences. If an app is on the application whitelist, ClickToFlash will automatically load all Flash.

Currently, the application whitelist does not have a GUI. Use the following Terminal command (or your favorite plist editor) to add apps to the whitelist, replacing "bundleID" with the bundle ID of the app you're whitelisting:

defaults write com.github.rentzsch.clicktoflash applicationWhitelist -array-add bundleID

App developers: you do not need to wait for a new release of ClickToFlash in order to use the application whitelist. Simply include a key named "ClickToFlashOptOut" in your app's Info.plist file, set its value to "YES", and your app will automatically be whitelisted by ClickToFlash.