From KaiRo's update in https://wiki.mozilla.org/Platform/2013-02-12 '* Though Flash support is a major feature, it's also one of the largest pains we have, esp. in terms of crashing * >15% of all crashes in 19.0b5 are Flash-related (probably more, this is only based on the top signatures and obvious indicators for Flash being involved) * Because Adobe doesn't care, those are really hard to debug, Flash is a "black box" for us * If we continue to support it, can we put Flash in its own process like we do for desktop? * Sumo has mentioned that we get more complaints that flash isn't available more so than the reports of crashing.' Some suggested next steps include: * getting the percentage of crashes and affected users where the Android versions should be supported with Adobe's last release * consider notifying the user that a Flash crash has occurred, and that Adobe no longer supports them (or has never supported their Android version)

Starting this off as a meta bug since kbrosnan suggested there were already bugs on file.

(In reply to Alex Keybl [:akeybl] from comment #0) > From KaiRo's update in https://wiki.mozilla.org/Platform/2013-02-12 > > '* Though Flash support is a major feature, it's also one of the largest > pains we have, esp. in terms of crashing > * >15% of all crashes in 19.0b5 are Flash-related (probably more, this is > only based on the top signatures and obvious indicators for Flash being > involved) Hopefully most of the crashes we can avoid are fixed, but there may still be some things we can do. > * Because Adobe doesn't care, those are really hard to debug, Flash is a > "black box" for us > * If we continue to support it, can we put Flash in its own process like we > do for desktop? Nope, not possible to put it in a different process. Flash was one of the original motivations for not using e10s. > * Sumo has mentioned that we get more complaints that flash isn't available > more so than the reports of crashing.' I think we may be able to do something about this. If it's not installed on their phone, maybe we can point them to the page where they can install it? We'd probably want to have some stuff about not supported by Adobe, etc. > > Some suggested next steps include: > > * getting the percentage of crashes and affected users where the Android > versions should be supported with Adobe's last release Good idea. Soon we'll have flash version information in crash reports, too, so that should help. (bug 839456) > * consider notifying the user that a Flash crash has occurred, and that > Adobe no longer supports them (or has never supported their Android version) I think this is a bad idea. When Flash crashes, it's possible that it was really caused by something dumb the browser did. Also, we'd be throwing Adobe under the bus which is just not nice.

Adobe has changed the mime types for the archived apks they serve to text/plain. So users on FxA cannot download it and desktop users need to use the context menu to save the files.

(In reply to Kevin Brosnan [:kbrosnan] from comment #3) > Adobe has changed the mime types for the archived apks they serve to > text/plain. So users on FxA cannot download it and desktop users need to use > the context menu to save the files. + kind of nervous sticking the user in-front of each and every single vulnerable APK listed in-front of them on their archives (http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/archived-flash-player-versions.html#Flash Player archives) #canoworms

I think there is a bug for crash reporting but I don't know the number.

(In reply to Aaron Train [:aaronmt] from comment #4) > (In reply to Kevin Brosnan [:kbrosnan] from comment #3) > > Adobe has changed the mime types for the archived apks they serve to > > text/plain. So users on FxA cannot download it and desktop users need to use > > the context menu to save the files. > > + kind of nervous sticking the user in-front of each and every single > vulnerable APK listed in-front of them on their archives > (http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/archived-flash-player-versions. > html#Flash Player archives) #canoworms Yeah, maybe we could direct them to our own landing page that just has one "Install Flash" button. The mime problem is annoying, but we could have a helper in the browser to download/install the APK. #killmeplease

(In reply to Aaron Train [:aaronmt] from comment #4) > + kind of nervous sticking the user in-front of each and every single > vulnerable APK listed in-front of them on their archives > (http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/archived-flash-player-versions. > html#Flash Player archives) #canoworms Adobe has been regularly releasing updates and submitting them to the play store. They committed to fixing critical security issues for 5 years. So far for the last 6 months they have released 4 or so new versions for ICS.

(In reply to James Willcox (:snorp) (jwillcox@mozilla.com) from comment #2) > > * getting the percentage of crashes and affected users where the Android > > versions should be supported with Adobe's last release > > Good idea. Soon we'll have flash version information in crash reports, too, > so that should help. (bug 839456) For our reference, here's associated support info: [1] https://blogs.adobe.com/flashplayer/2012/06/flash-player-and-android-update.html [2] https://www.adobe.com/devnet-apps/flashruntimes/certified-devices.html > > * consider notifying the user that a Flash crash has occurred, and that > > Adobe no longer supports them (or has never supported their Android version) > > I think this is a bad idea. When Flash crashes, it's possible that it was > really caused by something dumb the browser did. Also, we'd be throwing > Adobe under the bus which is just not nice. I actually disagree here. Adobe is playing a game where their APK is installable on Android 4.1 and higher, even though they don't support those versions. Therefore, any Flash crash on Android 4.1 or higher is worth noting as a Flash crash on an unsupported Android version. I don't think we're throwing anybody under the bus.

Once bug 839456 is on beta, we'll want to pull together Android/Flash version info in crashes and come up with a proposal moving forward.

Note the Beta population is over represented by Tablets and newer Android versions.

Flash is going away (bug 1381916), so there's no point in pursuing this further.