Flash videos won't play full screen

This article is no longer maintained, so its content might be out of date.

End of Flash support: Like other browsers and Adobe, Firefox ended Flash support at the end of 2020. Please see End of support for Adobe Flash for more information.

If you are able to view Flash videos but you are unable to view them if you try to make them full screen, then you may have a problem with the Flash player and your video drivers. This article describes how to work around this problem.

Preload the libGL.so.1 library

On Linux, this problem can often be resolved changing the command used to launch Firefox so that a graphics library is loaded along with Firefox:

  1. Ubuntu (and other GNOME-based distributions): Click on the Preferences menu and select Main menu. The Main Menu window appears.
  2. Click on the program group called Internet.
  3. Select Firefox Web Browser and click on the Properties button. The Launcher properties window appears.
  4. Insert the string env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libGL.so.1 before the text specified in the Command field:

    fb604c309992ec8d1e1b5cabb49d593e-1249820004-202-1.png
  5. Click on Close to dismiss the Launcher properties window.
  6. Click on Close to exit the Main menu window.

If the problem is not solved, go to the next section.

Reset Zoom

Press and hold commandCtrl while pressing 0 to reset the Firefox zoom.

If the problem is not solved, go to the next section.

Disable Flash hardware acceleration

Note: When Flash videos are in full screen, the use of hardware acceleration depends on a Flash setting and not the Firefox hardware acceleration setting.

First make sure you are using the latest version of Flash (to check your version visit this Adobe test page) and then do the following:

  1. Go to this Adobe Flash Player Help page.
  2. Right-clickHold down the Control key while you click on the Flash Player logo on that page, then click on Settings in the context menu. The Adobe Flash Player Settings screen will open.
  3. Click on the icon at the bottom-left of the Adobe Flash Player Settings window to open the Display panel.
  4. Remove the check mark from Enable hardware acceleration.

    fpSettings1.png
  5. Click Close to close the Adobe Flash Player Settings Window.
  6. Restart Firefox.

If this workaround allows you to view full screen videos, you should try to update your graphics drivers.

If the problem is not solved, go to the next section.

Unredirect full screen windows in Compiz

Compiz OpenGL compositing manager is known to interfere with displaying Flash in full screen.

  1. Go to Compiz Config manager > General Options
  2. Check mark Unredirect Full Screen Windows.



Based on information from Web Upd8

These fine people helped write this article:

AliceWyman, Chris Ilias, Bo102010, Michael Verdi, fxer2011, scoobidiver, z01s, Andrew, Swarnava Sengupta, user917725, Angela Lazar
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