Aral Balkan

There is a bug with Adobe Acrobat Connect that bit me really badly today, just before the OSFlash conference. Basically, it seemed as if the Add-Ins were installed correctly (in Safari and Firefox) but they wouldn't work. I couldn't share my screen or upload documents. And yet I wasn't getting any errors and the troubleshooting application was giving me a green light.

Thankfully, I found two forum threads (here and here) that led me in the right direction with only half an hour to go. Based on the information there, I tracked down the folder that Acrobat Connect installs the Add-In to:

~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/www.macromedia.com/bin/connectaddin6X0

Unfortunately, what Acrobat Connect did was install the wrong version of the Add-In. Instead of the OS X version, it installed the OS 9 version. To make matters worse, because the Add-In does physically exist in the right folder, Acrobat Connect thinks it is installed correctly but when it tries to load it, OS X won't load it. The symptom is that you get a small white pop-up screen that says "Loading Adobe Acrobat Connect" that then silently disappears.

The workaround is to replace the contents of that folder with the actual OS X Add-In.

Thankfully, with ten minutes to go for the keynote, I realized that this was the issue and Ralph kindly sent me his files. Copying the correct files into that folder immediately solved the issue (no restart of the browser or even the Connect session required.)

If you're having the same issue, download the OS X version of the Adobe Acrobat Connect Add-In here. Unzip and place the files there in the folder specified above and that should solve your problem.

I hope that this helps. Until I figured this out, I rebooted (twice), cleared all Flash player preferences, reinstalled Firefox and had three heart attacks! Oh yes, and things started working with only 5 minutes to go for the keynote! Talk about cutting it close!

Comments

• How did you call it? Extreme coding? :)

  by EL Mystica on 2007-06-15 20:41:42

• LOL!

  by aral on 2007-06-15 21:27:54

• Hi, The forum post suggests that it's Firefox that's misreporting the Mac OS version and causing the wrong addin version to be loaded. The comment indicates that installing through Safari worked properly. I'd recommend that over downloading the addin from a third party.

  by Brant on 2007-06-27 03:37:21

• Hi Brant, At least in my experience, it happened while installing the plugin from Safari. So either both Firefox and Safari are misreporting the version or there's something else wrong. Regardless, manually installing the correct version works so I'll keep recommending that until Adobe acknowledges the problem and provides an official workaround.

  by aral on 2007-06-27 06:30:41

• There are not separate OS 9 and OS 10 versions of the Connect 6x0 add-in. There are, however, known issues with the 6x0 add-in and some Intel Macs. Before doing a clean install, I suggest the following work-around:- --- 1) Check for multiple shared objects directories: a) In Finder, navigate to \Library\Preferences\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects There should only be one randomly named folder in the Shared Objects directory. 2.Delete any empty folders in the #SharedObjects directory, or folders containing the oldest versions of the shared objects. --- If that does not work, you may try running your browser under Rosetta. Perhaps more importantly, Connect 6 SP3 will be released in September and includes a new Add-in, version 6x5, which features native Intel Mac support (amongst other improvements.)

  by Brant on 2007-07-31 20:03:11

• I was actually in a Connect meeting and had audio issues. I did a quick search and found your post. What I ended up finding was that the folder you mention with the plugin didn't even exist. Can Connect work without the plugin installed? I downloaded from your link and put it there, but haven't noticed anything different. B

  by Brent Schlenker on 2007-07-24 20:52:44

• Hi Brent, The problem I've documented here, and the folder you mention, is only important for presenters (for screen sharing, uploads, etc.) The audio issues you're mentioning are unrelated to this. It may just have been bandwidth/latency issues with the server or your connection.

  by Aral on 2007-07-25 09:31:43

• Thanks Aral I'm on OSX 10.4. Only there's one problem with the 6x0 version of the add-in, I get no audio at all with that one. When I remove it, audio works, but not file sharing. Is there a version of the add-in that supporst both?

  by Mike on 2007-07-26 11:44:18

• I followed the exact instructions you gave, Aral, with guidance from two people much more experienced than I am, who were presenters in our meeting. I was able to hear them (that had never been a problem), but still couldn't access my voice activation, nor was I able to share the screen with them. Anyone have a great solution for mac book pro, other than waiting for version 6X5 to come out?

  by Jan on 2007-08-25 03:17:30

• OK, a combination of Aral & Brant's suggestions is the solution to the problem until Service Pack 3 is released. I've deleted any of the Breeze related SOLs as Brant describes and then deleted the old Breeze add-n replacing it with the download that Aral's linked to above and it works like a charm. Note to users of dual monitors - if you're screensharing from OS X you'll need to screenshare from the default monitor for the app/window that you're sharing to be properly displayed to meeting participants. Andrew

  by Andrew Muller on 2007-09-10 22:10:15

• Thanks for sharing, Andrew :)

  by Aral on 2007-09-11 07:25:35

• Thanks for the info! I just installed breeze yesterday (using Firefox) to do a test meeting, and could not get it to work. Found this article this morning and now it's working like a charm. I deleted the current installation of Connect following Aral's instructions, and then removed all the extra (more than 10) shared object folders as Brant suggested. Installed connect again through Safari and now all is well for both browsers :)

  by Zach on 2007-09-20 15:31:22

• Hi Zach, Glad it helped! :)

  by Aral on 2007-09-21 15:49:45

• Any updates to this thread? Latest Adobe connect add-in(6X5) simply won't work on my MacBook Pro. Tried reinstalling etc. Any ideas? Pierre

  by Pierre Godbout on 2008-05-14 01:12:19

• I'm running Mac OS 10.6.1 and Safari 4.0.3 ConnectNow crashed my browser every time I tried to enter my meeting room. The solution for me was to remove the "acaddin" folder from /Users/(yourusername)/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/FlashPlayer/www.macromedia.com/bin/ I tried lots of other things but this is the one that worked for me. Hope that helps someone else.

  by Bart on 2009-09-23 04:56:30

• Thank you so much for taking your time to post this information. My instructor had advised me to install the plug-in to share my screen with the class, and I've had problems since. It was so frustrating! I found this and deleted the stupid add-in from the bin folder, and that apparently did the trick! You have really helped me out! Not even the Technical Support team from my school could help me. Thanks again!

  by Sara on 2010-01-18 19:22:22

• You're welcome, Sara, glad it helped :)

  by Aral on 2010-01-22 11:34:47

• I have been beating my head against a wall. followed your instructions to a 'T' and still no dice on watching the sessions that my professor has posted through Adobe Connect Pro. i'm wondering if i need to be running OS X 10.6.x? I'm still on 10.5.8. any thoughts or reflections?

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  by ugg boots on 2010-12-14 03:34:54

• I have Snow Leopard, and Adobe Connect crashes all of the time. I think it's related to the audio component, but have no idea. My tech support person's solution is to "get a PC", but, um, no, not doing that. I have a MacbookPro, pretty high end, so convinced it's not a memory issue. Suggestions? You'll be my hero if you can help me figure this out!

  by Bob Gotwals on 2012-02-16 02:41:26