How To Put Flash Onto Your Nexus 7 Tablet

[Babyfacemagee]

When Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) was announced at Google I/O along with the Nexus 7, there were a ton of new improvements shown in Google's latest version of their mobile OS such as true tabbed browsing and syncing of bookmarks and passwords with your desktop browser.  One omission however was Flash capability...Chrome is HTML5 only.  Now granted this is a strategic decision since Adobe no longer is supporting flash for mobile devices in future versions and the entire web is moving quickly to a HTML5 world...but in the meantime until all your favorite sites are converted what's a Flash dependent Nexus 7 owner to do?

Well good news folks because XDA member Stempox has devised a solution to put Flash onto your Nexus 7 tablet.  Now it's not that complex a procedure but it does require you to have root access.   The main actions require you to sideload the flash APK as well as the old 'Browser.APK' onto your device as well as modify a few files to get things running smoothly.   Another XDA member found that sideloading Firefox works just as well for your Flash browsing needs.   While we wouldn't recommend this procedure for the complete newbie, those that are confident in their hacking skills can head on over to XDA-Developers and get all the juicy details of how to do it.   Anyone here in the forums plan to give this a try?  Let us know how it turns out.


Source: XDA-Developers
via Liliputing

[samalex]

Thanks ... I tried side loading Flash 11.1 from my Android phone plus loaded Firefox Beta from Google Play but no dice... Firefox sees the plugin and when a Flash page loads it has "tap here to active plugin", but when tapped the browser crashes.

[Babyfacemagee]

I don't think just sideloading without installing flash and changing some of the file and folder settings will work.  I believe you need root access to install the flash apk and to change those settings and then sideload browser.apk or another flash capable browser.

[radiocycle]

Thanks ... I tried side loading Flash 11.1 from my Android phone plus loaded Firefox Beta from Google Play but no dice... Firefox sees the plugin and when a Flash page loads it has "tap here to active plugin", but when tapped the browser crashes.

samalex, could you please define the term 'side load'?  Thanks,

radio ..

[samalex]

samalex, could you please define the term 'side load'?  Thanks,

radio ..

Sure thing, side loading is when you load an app into Android that doesn't come from one of the app stores, whether it be Google Play, Amazon's app store, etc.  Apps for Android are general packaged with the .apk extension, and opening one of these in Android will launch the installer and install the app. 

Getting into exactly how to side-load an app is probably beyond the scope of this topic, but I'll write-up something and post it in a new topic unless someone else can link to a similar topic I might've missed.

[radiocycle]

Got it, thanks!

..

[frank]

I have flash working on Firefox Beta (from the Play store) and I'm not rooted.

I think the issue is with which flash apk you sideload.  Unfortunately I forget which post on XDA had the APK posted where I got mine.  I'd recommend poking around on the links in the original and searching there until you find the right one.

[Babyfacemagee]

Cool.  Thanks for the clarification.   If someone can point a link to the right Firefox apk that would be great.

[samalex]

I have flash working on Firefox Beta (from the Play store) and I'm not rooted.

I think the issue is with which flash apk you sideload.  Unfortunately I forget which post on XDA had the APK posted where I got mine.  I'd recommend poking around on the links in the original and searching there until you find the right one.

Hmm, I used Firefox Beta from Google Play and Adobe Flash 11.1 which was sideloaded, but it didn't work for me.  Which version of Flash did you use?  Mine came from my DroidX phone.  Also did you install Flash first or Firefox?  I don't know if the install order matters, but it may... 

Update: XDA has the link to the Flash APK here - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1774336

I'm still trying to download Firefox Beta from Google Play again (deleted it yesterday), but I'll report back on a bit with results

[samalex]

Another update .. I used the version of Adobe Flash here -  http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1774336 - and I was able to get Flash working with Firefox Beta, though it's slow as heck.  But it does seem to work none the less.

Previously I used Flash 11.1.111.10 which is what my DroidX phone uses, but XDA linked to version 11.1.115.12 which is what worked.  IT's slow for sure, but it'll do the job if in a pinch.

[Badger1313]

Has anyone tried xScope Browser?  Its on the Google Play Store and folks claim it provides them with Flash on the Nexus 7.  I am still waiting for mine to be delivered so I cannot test it myself, yet.  Would appreciate it if someone could try it and report back.

[JayJ]

Yes I have xScope browser on my N7, also have it on my SGS2. I've been using it for a couple years now,  since I got my first droid.
The recent update is very nice and the development team are regularly updating it with new features,  loving the holo feel of the new UI.

The flash thing though is just the modded flash available from XDA, it just guides you through the process of downloading and installing the apk. There are still some issues with flash on JB though,  I believe that there are freezing issues where the browser will freeze up after playing flash content and the browser must be closed down.

[iroc]

I followed the instructions on xda forum and got flash to work with Firefox.  It sometimes force closes and it doesn't like going full screen, but its manageable and its better than nothing.