Flash Player Update Breaks WordPress Media Uploader

Recently I wrote about a problem I had with the Flash-based media uploader that is bundled with WordPress. The fix for the problem wasn’t very obvious, but it was fairly easy to resolve.

Yesterday I noticed that the uploader was again not working. This time, however, I was able to use the browser-based uploader which led me to suspect there was an issue with my Flash player installation. As I thought about the situation I recalled that I upgraded my Flash player to version 10 a few days before. After a quick Google search I learned that there is an issue with the latest version of the Flash player that causes problems with the WordPress media uploader (see this post in the WordPress forums).

So what’s the solution? Well, I could continue to use the browser-based uploader or downgrade to the previous version of Flash. I decided to go with the second option. Adobe provides downloads of older version of Flash on their site (link). Unfortunately, the downloads are geared toward developers who need to test their applications on different platforms so the size of the zip file is quite large.

After installing version 9 of Flash for both Internet Explorer and Firefox I verified that the media uploader was indeed working by uploading the screenshot below.

Screenshot of Ryan Wentzel Photography viewed in Firefox

Here’s a recap of what to do if you’ve upgraded to Flash Player 10 and can no longer use the WordPress media uploader.

1. Uninstall Flash Player 10 and the Active X control if you’re using Windows.
2. Download version 9 here.
3. Adobe recommends that you reboot your computer before re-installing Flash.
4. Reinstall Flash Player 9.

After reinstalling version 9 you should be able to use the media uploader in WordPress once again.