How To Install Adobe Flash on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Devices

Chances are you’ve already heard that the new Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system does not support Adobe Flash. Frankly speaking, this is the one downside in what is otherwise a great edition of Android, but the good news is that there are ways around it.

First though, you need to determine whether you’re using a device that has been upgraded to Jelly Bean (such as the Galaxy Nexus) or one that has come with Jelly Bean pre-installed (currently only the Nexus 7).



Installing Flash on Devices Upgraded to Jelly Bean

When dealing with devices that have been upgraded to Jelly Bean the advantage is that although Google Chrome is the default browser, the old stock browser is still present as well. As a result, these instructions should help you to install and enable Adobe Flash support:

• Download Flash Player APK
• Transfer the Flash Player APK file to the SD card of your Android device
• Open the file and install it using a File Manager
• Run the stock browser app
• Open the browser settings
• Find the option to enable the Flash Player either to ‘on demand’ or ‘always on’, depending on your preference
• Once you have completed these steps, your stock browser should support Adobe Flash and you can test it out yourself just to confirm that it works.

Installing Flash on Devices with Jelly Bean Pre-Installed

Unfortunately when you are dealing with devices that come with Jelly Bean pre-installed (i.e. the Nexus 7), there is no stock browser and as much as Google Chrome may be a great desktop browser, its mobile version does not allow for any plugins.

So if you want to run Adobe Flash, you’ll need to first download and install the stock browser by following these instructions:

• Make sure your Jelly Bean device is rooted
• Download stock browser APK from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) Jelly Bean ROM
• Transfer the APK file to the /system/app folder on the your device
• Change the permissions from rw——- to rw-r–r–
• Check to see if you can find any files named browser provider.apk or browser provider.odex
• If you find any such files, rename them to something else or just add a ’1′ after the file extension
• After you’ve followed these instructions, you should go to the above section (regarding installing Flash on devices upgraded to Jelly Bean) and follow the instructions there. That should finish the process and allow you to run the stock browser with Adobe Flash support enabled.

For now this workaround is a great way to once again be able to enjoy the benefits of Adobe Flash on your Android device. Hopefully in the future Google Chrome itself will support Adobe Flash and there won’t be a need for these extra steps, but at least you have a way to get Flash to work while waiting.