New in OS X: Get MacRumors Push Notifications on your Mac

Resubscribe Now Close

Adobe Suggests Disabled Hardware Acceleration for Flash Player in OS X Lion [Update]

Thursday July 21, 2011 7:57 am PDT by Eric Slivka
TUAW reports that Adobe has posted a list of known issues for its products running on OS X Lion. The list is unfortunately extensive, but the company's discussion of Flash Player issues stands out for the revelation that OS X Lion may have disabled hardware acceleration.
Flash Player may cause higher CPU activity when playing a YouTube video. Possibly related to disabled hardware acceleration.
Other issues with Flash Player include a loss of response to mouse clicks in the setting dialog and problems with animation of custom native mouse cursors.

In addition to the Flash Player issues, Adobe's support document lists a number of other issues with its products under OS X Lion, as well as a few general notes for users to be aware of:

- With OS X Lion now hiding the user Library folder by default, users may need to use Finder's "Go to Folder" command to access preferences and other user settings for Adobe applications. Alternatively, users can use the command line to make the Library folder permanently visible.

- OS X Lion's new reverse scrolling may throw off some users, not just in Adobe's applications but across the entire experience. Reverse scrolling can be disabled in System Preferences.

- A lack of Rosetta support in OS X Lion means that some older Adobe software such as CS2 or earlier will not run on the new operating system.

- Adobe is considering how it may adopt some of OS X Lion's new features such as Autosave, Restore, Versioning, Full Screen Mode, and new multi-touch gestures, but they haven't been implemented yet. Adobe specifically notes that the Restore feature which reopens all windows and files to their previous state when an application is relaunched does not function on Adobe applications.

Update: Adobe corrected their post to say that hardware accelerated Flash is supported in Lion.
The final release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). The previous “Known Issue” described in a tech note suggesting that video hardware acceleration was disabled in Lion was incorrect and based on tests with a pre-release version of Mac OS X Lion that related to only one particular Mac GPU configuration. We continue to work closely with Apple to provide Flash Player users with a high quality experience on Mac computers.
[ 374 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Avatar
eliehass
68 months ago
I'm sorry, but this is just sad. Adobe is not some small no name developer. Apple has put out pre-release development builds of Lion for a while before its release. Adobe had plenty of time to put out a Lion compatible update. These comments make it sound like Adobe is just thinking about the implications of Lion now, after it's official release. They seriously dropped the ball here...
Rating: 105 Votes
Avatar
Gav2k
68 months ago
So really adobe are saying 'we couldn't be bothered to update our software' despite having months worth of opportunities to do so
Rating: 70 Votes
Avatar
tempusfugit
68 months ago
You mean flash is a buggy POS? And it doesn't work well with os x?

This is an unexpected and earth shattering revelation.
Rating: 53 Votes
Avatar
paradox00
68 months ago
So... what did Adobe do during the year that the beta was available?
Rating: 43 Votes
Avatar
dscuber9000
68 months ago
I suggest disabling Flash.

Seriously, a video took up 53% of my CPU yesterday...
Rating: 36 Votes
Avatar
Porco
68 months ago
Hey, be fair, maybe no-one told them about Lion until this week! :rolleyes:
Rating: 29 Votes
Avatar
yourstation
68 months ago

I'm sorry, but this is just sad. Adobe is not some small no name developer. Apple has put out pre-release development builds of Lion for a while before its release. Adobe had plenty of time to put out a Lion compatible update. These comments make it sound like Adobe is just thinking about the implications of Lion now, after it's official release. They seriously dropped the ball here...


Well said. Adobe have no excuses but will try and blame Apple.
Rating: 20 Votes
Avatar
jamesnajera
68 months ago
How long did Adobe have to test their software on Lion? Adobe is full of crap. Adobe get your act together or watch people stop using flash. Google labs is making a flash to HTML5 converter, YouTube supports HTML5, if Adobe keeps spewing crap like this, they will be forgotten.
Rating: 17 Votes
Avatar
Skika
68 months ago
Uninstalled Flash yesterday anyways, i decided i don't need junk on my computer.
Rating: 16 Votes
Avatar
bp1000
68 months ago
So, Adobe, one of the biggest software houses in the world couldn't be bothered to release a flash player update for Lion despite having months a pre-releases

I'm lost for words.
Rating: 14 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]