Samsung won't provide any fix to the unavailability of Flash

[CJ Mac]

This is the 7 inch tablet. It is not a phone.

Two weeks ago, I contacted Samsung help about my device working slowly. Long story short, he had me go into Safe Mode and then consider uninstalling and reinstalling apps to see if any of them caused the problem. My tablet did work better after that--until suddenly I wasn't able to play videos in FB as I had been doing all along. The message was that Flash player was unavailable. I have since contact Samsung twice and gotten the same reply: Adobe has chosen not to support Flash for Android anymore. That's it. They can't recommend anything else.

But WHY did it work until that "fix"? I've looked on tons of forums (including this one) and none of the suggestions have helped. I haven't installed Dolphin or Puffin or any other new browser because reviews of everything suggested say "It was perfect until the latest update."

The most recent thing I tried was installed the VLC app, but I have no idea what to do with it. If there's a video on FB that won't play, I see no way to make it open in VLC.

I did not do a complete reset, but I did go back to defaults--didn't do anything to help.

 

[SpookDroid]

Unfortunately Samsung is 'right', they can't do much if the problem is related to a Flash plugin. Android DID stop supporting it and Adobe stopped updating and pulled the app from the Play store a while ago. Only if you find the old APK and manually install it alongside a browser that still supports it would that work.

That being said, I don't see why your problem would be with Flash if you're trying to play FB Videos (unless they're coming from a 3rd party web page that still uses Flash). Is it happening from the FB app or the website? If the website, have you tried forcing Desktop Mode and see if it works?

 

[CJ Mac]

If someone has posted a YouTube video, there's no problem. But "homemade" videos and anything from Tip Hero won't play. When you click on Tip Hero videos in FB, it always leads to their website and the videos now don't work there like they used to. So you're saying "choose desktop site" at Tip Hero? I'll give that a try.

We posted a video ourselves that wouldn't play for us on the tablet. It's in MP4 format.

Any suggestions on how to find "the old APK"? I've seen that suggested and have no idea how to go about it.

 

[CJ Mac]

Ha ha! Thanks--"request desktop site" worked for Tip Hero!

 

[CJ Mac]

I don't know what happened to my first reply:

YouTube videos work in FB but that's it. Tip Hero wouldn't work when I clicked in FB and it took me to their website but as stated above, your "desktop site" trick worked. But "homemade" videos and others that are not YouTube won't work. We posted an MP4 that we can't open in our tablet.

I also asked how I could get hold of the old APK. I've heard that mentioned, but have no idea how to find it.

 

[SpookDroid]

Well, unfortunately I don't know where either because I've never needed Flash for a while... But if you Google Adobe Flash Android APK I'm sure something would come up. Disclaimer: Be careful where you get the APK and make sure you're not getting something 'extra' (and naughty) along with it. Like I said, even if you do manage to get the APK, only a handful of browsers still support using that plug in, so you'd have to use said browsers when trying to view Flash content.

Glad 'desktop mode' worked for some, though