Chrome: How to allow Flash on sites

Google Chrome blocks Flash content by default in recent versions of the web browser. Google furthermore removed controls from Chrome in regards to plugins and Flash, and will remove Flash support from the browser in the coming years as Adobe announced the retirement of Flash by the year 2020.

Google Chrome's current behavior when it comes to Flash is to block the execution, and prompt users whenever Flash content is encountered. The browser prioritizes HTML5 content when it is available over Flash content.

While this works at times, it does not at others. The prompt may not be displayed and users are without controls then to enforce the running of Flash in the browser.

Google integrated Adobe Flash natively in Chrome back in 2010, and it has been part of the browser ever since.

Chrome: How to allow Flash on sites

Chrome displays a notification on web pages if Flash content is blocked. The notification reads "click to enable Adobe Flash Player" and is found in place of the Flash content.

You can click on this, and then on the "run Flash" prompt that the browser displays near the top of the interface to run the content that time.

The Flash content is loaded in the browser if you select allow, and not loaded if you dismiss the prompt or select block instead.

The notification that is displayed instead of the Flash content is not displayed all the time. You may also need to click on the "get Adobe Flash" button instead, or may find yourself in a situation where you cannot activate Flash at all.

While you can allow sites to run Flash when Google prompts you to do so while visiting a site with Flash content, you may want to allow Flash on some sites permanently to make things easier. The latter may also be important for sites that don't work properly in regards to allowing Flash content, for instance when Chrome does not display the prompt.

You can configure sites to run Flash automatically in Chrome. Here is how that is done:

1. Load chrome://settings/content/flash in the browser's address bar. This opens the Adobe Flash content settings.
2. You can change the status of Flash by moving the "ask first" slider to off.
3. To add a site to the allow list, click on the "add" button next to allow, and add a site to the list. You can use [*.]example.com for that, or enter https://www.example.com/ instead.
4. The same rules apply to sites that you want to block from running Flash content.

A click on the three dots next to a site listing gives you options to edit, remove or block sites (allow if you click on the three dots next to a blocked site).

Now You: do you visit sites regularly that require Flash?