Q: Flash player adding popup

From where did you download it? You may have already allowed software to be installed that required the newer version.

Open Safari preferences, click on the Security icon, be sure to check the box to block pop-ups. Then see:

The Safe Mac » Adware Removal Guide

Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection

An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.

For adware removal see The Safe Mac » Adware Removal Guide and The Safe Mac » Adware Removal Tool.

Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.

See these Apple articles:

  Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection

  OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware

  OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware

  OS X Mavericks- Protect your Mac from malware

  About file quarantine in OS X

If you require anti-virus protection Thomas Reed recommends using ClamXAV. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for this recommendation.)

From user Joe Bailey comes this equally useful advice:

The facts are:

1. There is no anti-malware software that can detect 100% of the malware out there.

2. There is no anti-malware that can detect anything targeting the Mac because there

     is no Mac malware in the wild, and therefore, no "signatures" to detect.

3. The very best way to prevent the most attacks is for you as the user to be aware that

     the most successful malware attacks rely on very sophisticated social engineering

     techniques preying on human avarice, ****, and fear.

4. Internet popups saying the FBI, NSA, Microsoft, your ISP has detected malware on

    your computer is intended to entice you to install their malware thinking it is a

    protection against malware.

5. Some of the anti-malware products on the market are worse than the malware

    from which they purport to protect you.

6. Be cautious where you go on the internet.

7. Only download anything from sites you know are safe.

8. Avoid links you receive in email, always be suspicious even if you get something

    you think is from a friend, but you were not expecting.

9. If there is any question in your mind, then assume it is malware.

You appear to not have gotten an Adobe Flash Player from the adobe.com site.

Other prompts to download items under a desired-name from odd sources can

lead to adware, browser redirects, & malware since those are not valid sources

for a maker's software.

There are means and methods of removing those kinds of adware, and other

similar bad ware add-ons, usually you can start by checking out what was

added to your Safari browser, if you use it as the main default one. I don't.

Some related identification of issue topics and troubleshooting/removal methods

are discussed and described at The Safe Mac site pages...

•Tech Guides -- The Safe Mac:
http://www.thesafemac.com/tech-guides/

Also, if after reading through and identifying the probable issue, should that

relate to Adware, there's an Adware removal guide -- Also, a Removal Tool.

Once you figure the symptoms relate to an Adware product you may have

installed (if not genieo, softonic, mackeeper, and a host of other garbage)

you can see if this helps. But this won't remove a browser redirect or fix

a web page that has been set up as a new home page by one of them.

If Adware, you can see the content of how to deal with it here, and if you

so choose, linked to this page is the Adware Removal Tool:

http://www.thesafemac.com/arg/

A simplistic yet sometimes helpful tool that makes a basic report of some

aspects of the Mac OS X system, that you could then post the results to

a discussions page, can be obtained by use of EtreCheck; this runs a few

scripts to compile information from several places in the System.

If you choose to get and try this item, the free download (runs free) is

available from maker's page, where you can/should read more about it:

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

This also appears to have been used safely and effectively for helping to

find some (not all) of the odd files some of these adware or other junk

files false downloads of content can put into the computer. You can use

it to see (or post the report, others may take a look or guess at it) what

appears; and then consider how to go about removing. TheSafeMac has

some info on how to remove several kinds of items, some are very good.

And you also may have the fortune of advice from a more technical source

of more detailed instruction on how to check test and diagnose, Mac issues.

Perhaps Link Davis will be able to help you. I don't know much about those

technical dealings, as those kinds of replies are fine OS X learning experience.

PS: once everything untoward is addressed, to check into the official Adobe

Flash site is where to look for their take on this. The OS X may balk at a

download, but the company is Adobe; not some other pop-up while visiting

an infected web site... http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player.html

Good luck & happy computing!

edited 2x

From where did you download it?

Have you already solved the problem?

What version is installed, according to the Flash Player preference pane? Can you watch videos on YouTube?

If you can't install or update Flash, follow these instructions.

If you have installed the latest version of Flash, please take each of the following steps that you haven't already tried. After each step, relaunch Safari and test. For a "missing plug-in" error, start with Step 8. Back up all data before making any changes.

Step 1

You might have to log out or restart the computer before a Flash update takes effect.

Step 2

From the Safari menu bar, select

          Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Privacy ▹ Remove All Website Data...

and confirm. Close the window. Then select

           ▹ System Preferences… ▹ Flash Player ▹ Advanced

and click Delete All. Close the preference pane.

Step 3

If you're only having trouble with YouTube videos, log in to YouTube and load this page. You may see a link with the text "Leave the HTML5 Trial." If so, click that link.

Step 4

a. If you get a warning of a "blocked" or "outdated" plug-in, then select the Security tab in the Safari preferences window. In the list of plugins on the left, there should be one—and only one—entry for "Adobe Flash Player," showing the same version number that you installed. Select that entry. On the right there will be a list of websites for which you have specifically allowed Flash, if any. It's normal for the list to be empty. Below that is a menu labeled

          When visiting other websites

From that menu, select either Allow or Ask.

b. If you still get the alerts, then go back to the Flash Player preference pane and select the Advanced tab. Click Check Now. Quit and relaunch the browser.

c. If the alerts still persist, triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources

Right-click or control-click the highlighted text and select

          Services ▹ Open

from the contextual menu.* A folder should open. Inside it, there should be a file named "XProtect.meta.plist". If that file is missing and you know why it's missing, restore it from a backup or copy it from another Mac running the same version of OS X. Otherwise, reinstall OS X.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

          Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Step 5

In the Safari preferences window, select the Advanced tab and uncheck the box marked

          Stop plug-ins to save power

Step 6

Open this folder as in Step 4:

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins

Delete the following item, or anything with a similar name, if present:

          Flash Player (failing).plugin

You may be prompted for your login password.

Step 7

Re-download and reinstall Flash. Download it from the domain "get.adobe.com". Don't click a link from any other website, including this one, because you can't trust links. They may be an attempt to trick you into installing malware masquerading as Flash. Type the address into the browser window. Never download a Flash update from anywhere else.

Step 8

If you get a "missing plug-in" error, select

          Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Security

from the Safari menu bar and check the box marked 

          Allow (or Enable) plug-ins

Then click the button marked

          Manage Website Settings...

if present and make sure that the website is not blocked for Flash.

Step 9

Select

          Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Extensions

from the Safari menu bar. If any extensions are installed, disable them.