CHROME FLASH DEBUGGER NOT CONNECTING TO FLEX/FLASH BUILDER?

f your Flex/Flash Builder has suddenly problems connecting to your Flash debugger, you might be using Google Chrome.

It seems like Google started bundling the Flash Player together with Chrome (at least in the dev-channel version).
Since this browser has an automatic updating engine (in the background) you probably didn’t notice the update.

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Note: I noticed this issue when I suddenly couldn’t debug my Flash applications in Chrome anymore. Even a re-install of the debug version of Flash Player didn’t help!
Since I am using the dev-channel version (5.0.375.6) of Chrome (on MacOS), you might not be affected, but this is something that’s definitely gonna be an issue for you in the future, if you’re using the “normal” stable version of Chrome.

 

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Update: Seems like the BETA-channel got updated and ships the Flash Player as well. Thus, both versions, the dev- as well as the beta-version of Google Chrome, are affected.

 

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Currently, there are two workarounds for this:

 

1. Manually replace the Chrome Flash player with the debugger version (Thanks to Josh for the how-to).
2. Use a different browser for testing your Flash applications in.

Workaround #1 should work perfectly:
Go to chrome://plugins and disable the following entry (on MS Windows):

$HOME/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/Application/5.0.375.3/gcswf32.dll

This will disable the integrated Flash Player bundled with Google Chrome. Watch out not to disable your operating system’s default Flash Player (debugger). You can see the difference in the installation path: The global Flash Player is not installed into a directory associated with Chrome.

I, personally, prefer workaround #2:
In Flex/Flash Builder (or Eclipse), simply go to Preferences -> General -> Web Browser and hit “Use external Web Browser“. Then pick Safari, Firefox or whatever you prefer. This choice will then be your “development test browser”, while you can use Chrome for your daily surfing needs.