Flash games saving problem-Firefox

[HerbieG]

For several weeks I am coping with a weird problem while playing games on Firefox: their progress is not being saved. From big games to simple ones made by selfdefiant - when I close the tab and return to the game it is always like I have never played it at all. Surprisingly on Chrome everything works fine, but as some of the games simply work better on Firefox I would be more than happy to find a solution.

It affects only the flash games, html5 and WebGL/Unity games are saving progress without any problems.

As for the flash ones: it also happens that when a game is supposed to create a save file at the very beginning, it even fails to start. Again - no problems on Chrome.

I already tried the following:

1. Clearing the cache;
2. Clearing the cookies;
3. As above, but also deleting all cookies manually, from their NG location;
4. Restarting the browser after doing this;
5. Double or even triple checking whether the flash player is allowed to store data on the hard drive;
6. I even tried to pick the option to not allow the file storage, then clicking on "allow" again and then restarting the browser one more time, but still no effect.

I checked the NG cookies location again (after starting 2-3 games) and it seems like the games are creating cookies properly, but for some dumb reason the browser does not "see" them and is not loading them when I open the game.

It is not only a Newgrounds-related issue, because I tried some other websites and the result is totally the same.

Do you have any ideas what can be causing this and how to solve it?

[DamnedByFate]

Same problem. Cleared cache and cookies - didn't work. Checked flash settings, tried to manually allow NG to save stuff - didn't work, although flash now says it did.

[NeonSpider]

Have you tried uninstalling and/or reinstalling Flash? I know there was some Firefox update where Firefox "helpfully" uninstalled Flash on me (which I discovered when Flash games that had worked for years wouldn't load), and so I had to reinstall Flash. Doesn't sound like the exact same problem you're having, but uninstall and reinstall of Flash couldn't hurt and might even help.

The other thing you could try is now might be a good time to try migrating to one of the Firefox-derived NPAPI plugin supporting alternatives, such as Waterfox, Pale Moon, or Basilisk browsers. Whereas Firefox is set to sunset Flash at the end of the year, those browsers, while based on Firefox code, should continue to support NPAPI plugins for the forseeable future as it's one of the main reasons they were forked.

You will of course have to install Flash separately as none of those browsers will come with the Flash plugin by default. Maybe uninstall Flash, install one of those browsers, then reinstall Flash just to be sure it "takes". Although you may have to copy some plugin file to a browser-specific directory somewhere. You'll have to figure out where you're supposed to put it.

Once set up, those browsers should be far less likely to give these sorts of "surprises".

[HerbieG]

At 2/23/19 06:59 AM, NeonSpider wrote: Have you tried uninstalling and/or reinstalling Flash? I know there was some Firefox update where Firefox "helpfully" uninstalled Flash on me (which I discovered when Flash games that had worked for years wouldn't load), and so I had to reinstall Flash. Doesn't sound like the exact same problem you're having, but uninstall and reinstall of Flash couldn't hurt and might even help.

The other thing you could try is now might be a good time to try migrating to one of the Firefox-derived NPAPI plugin supporting alternatives, such as Waterfox, Pale Moon, or Basilisk browsers. Whereas Firefox is set to sunset Flash at the end of the year, those browsers, while based on Firefox code, should continue to support NPAPI plugins for the forseeable future as it's one of the main reasons they were forked.

You will of course have to install Flash separately as none of those browsers will come with the Flash plugin by default. Maybe uninstall Flash, install one of those browsers, then reinstall Flash just to be sure it "takes". Although you may have to copy some plugin file to a browser-specific directory somewhere. You'll have to figure out where you're supposed to put it.

Once set up, those browsers should be far less likely to give these sorts of "surprises".

So far I tried to install the latest NPAPI version of flash for Firefox, but it did not fix the problem. I tried to switch that plugin's setting to "always allow" - still nothing. Somehow the selfdefiant's Tech Room Escape managed to save one time, but then stopped again. Still the flash plugin is saving progress on Chrome and even on Internet Explorer.

There is one weird thing: when I choose to delete all cookies and clear the cache then all the progress for all games should be lost, right? But Firefox deletes some data while the sol files still stay in the uploads.ungrounded.net location. So all the old sol files are still there, the progress in these games is being loaded properly, but the browser fails to create new files/recognize the new ones.

@DamnedByFate - does it work the same way for you? Are there any files in that location on your computer?

[DamnedByFate]

At 2/23/19 09:50 AM, HerbieG wrote: @DamnedByFate - does it work the same way for you? Are there any files in that location on your computer?

Nope. I scoured lil' Foxy clean.

[HerbieG]

At 2/23/19 12:41 PM, DamnedByFate wrote:

At 2/23/19 09:50 AM, HerbieG wrote: @DamnedByFate - does it work the same way for you? Are there any files in that location on your computer?

Nope. I scoured lil' Foxy clean.

Ok, thanks anyway.

I'm running out of ideas to be honest, I even removed FF and installed it again - no effect.

When I leave a game that should create a sol file a game's location for this file is being created, but never the file itself.

[NeonSpider]

At 2/23/19 12:44 PM, HerbieG wrote:

At 2/23/19 12:41 PM, DamnedByFate wrote:

At 2/23/19 09:50 AM, HerbieG wrote: @DamnedByFate - does it work the same way for you? Are there any files in that location on your computer?

Nope. I scoured lil' Foxy clean.

Ok, thanks anyway.
I'm running out of ideas to be honest, I even removed FF and installed it again - no effect.
When I leave a game that should create a sol file a game's location for this file is being created, but never the file itself.

I mean you could try doing as I suggested and using one of the Firefox-forked alternatives. Considering official Firefox is pulling all NPAPI support at year-end you should probably be doing this *anyway*.

The other thing to check is make sure you have correct permissions set in your OS for the directory in question. If you have permissions set such that it's a read-only directory, well there ya go there's your problem right there! This indeed would manifest as being able to read files which reside in said directory, but not being able to write them there.

[HerbieG]

At 2/24/19 10:31 AM, NeonSpider wrote:

At 2/23/19 12:44 PM, HerbieG wrote:

At 2/23/19 12:41 PM, DamnedByFate wrote:

I installed Waterfox yesterday - thanks for information - and everything works just fine. Its current version is around Firefox 55, when that browser was working much better.

Waterfox is even using the same location as Firefox for sol files storage, so the problem is with the Firefox. I even removed the Flash Player and tried some of the previous NPAPI versions, but it did not help, so the problem is definitely caused by one of the recent Firefox updates.

After I uninstalled the flash I checked Chrome and both flash games and file storage are working well there, so Chrome isn't even using the PPAPI flash plugin anyway. It looks like Firefox is now the only major browser that did not develop its own alternative to flash player.

[NeonSpider]

At 2/24/19 10:48 AM, HerbieG wrote: After I uninstalled the flash I checked Chrome and both flash games and file storage are working well there, so Chrome isn't even using the PPAPI flash plugin anyway. It looks like Firefox is now the only major browser that did not develop its own alternative to flash player.

Glad it works fine for you in Waterfox.

As for Chrome, you're wrong about that. Chrome uses PPAPI Flash. If you uninstalled Flash it probably just uninstalled the NPAPI and possibly ActiveX versions of Flash, but PPAPI Flash is integrated with Chrome. If Flash "just worked" when you used Chrome even when you'd uninstalled Flash, then yes Chrome was using PPAPI Flash.

But know that come year's end the PPAPI Flash support in Chrome ends, so your only options then will be one of the Firefox-forked alternatives, using NPAPI Flash.

Good news is you can start playing your games in those browsers now, so that all your save progress won't be lost come year's end, for example were it saved in Chrome. I assume that were it saved in Firefox, if those other browsers use the same location, then perhaps those saved games could carry over into the alternative browsers.

[HerbieG]

At 2/24/19 11:30 AM, NeonSpider wrote:

In case you will ever encounter a problem like this - and @DamnedByFate - listen up: I SOLVED IT.

Saving on Firefox restored!

Everything is written in this thread.

The main exception:

"Announcements:

Mac NPAPI Sandbox - Mozilla Firefox

The Mac NPAPI Flash sandbox is enabled by default on Firefox 62 and later.

Disabling the sandbox requires using about:config to set...

dom.ipc.plugins.sandbox-level.flash to 0

...and then restarting the browser. The sandbox is known to prevent the following features from working:

• Print to PDF from the Flash print dialog
• Print to “Open in Preview” from the Flash print dialog
• Quicklook in the File->Open dialog
• Saving files to the filesystem from a Flash applet
• Flash applets downloading and running the Adobe Air installer
• Flash triggering Adobe Air applications to run".

[NeonSpider]

At 2/28/19 07:59 PM, HerbieG wrote: In case you will ever encounter a problem like this - and @DamnedByFate - listen up: I SOLVED IT.
Saving on Firefox restored!

Glad you figured it out in this particular case, but this is of little use. Firefox will remove the support entirely at year-end. Get used to using one of the alternate browsers which retains NPAPI plugin support. Of course only for gaming on Newgrounds, not for general web browsing.

But basically, if you're using whatever exact version of Firefox you're using or newer *and* you're on a Mac *and* it's before the end of the year *then* you change that one option. Very limited usefulness.

[DamnedByFate]

At 2/28/19 07:59 PM, HerbieG wrote: In case you will ever encounter a problem like this - and @DamnedByFate - listen up: I SOLVED IT.
Saving on Firefox restored!

Voided my warranty, but worked.

[Cyberdevil]

Great to know about this @HerbieG!

Haven't noticed any issues but then again I really haven't played enough lately. Changing that setting now...