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bbc iplayer stopped working - flash

Hello

The BBC iplayer has stopped working because of flash player

Is there anything I can try?

BBC iplayer has a huge java function to detect your location. I'm in Ireland, and BBC has an old grudge because we pinched BBC tv signal only intended for the UK and North of Ireland. So they ban us from iplayer if you have an Irish IP. So do ITV, for the same reason. For many other countries it's the same.

Where are you based?

lighter973,

Which browser are you using?

Firefox and Google Chrome should work, except in NI.

The browser-based BBC iPlayer hasn't needed Flash for yonks - definitely over a year ago.

There did used to be a desktop iPlayer that ran on Adobe AIR but I thought that was dropped even longer ago.

Sorry for the delay

Im in england, and run firefox 63.0.3, (cant get 72.0.1 to work) and palemoon 28.8.1

So you goto iPlayer, select a video, press play - what happens?

If you go to Tools>Addons>Plugins and make sure Flash (if it's present) is set to "Never Activate", restart the browser, then repeat the above - does anything change?

Quote:

Originally Posted by boughtonp (Post 6078671)

If you go to Tools>Addons>Plugins and make sure Flash (if it's present) is set to "Never Activate" then repeat the above - does anything change?

That works but you need to refresh screen for iplayer or restart firefox.

Quote:

Originally Posted by boughtonp (Post 6078671)

So you goto iPlayer, select a video, press play - what happens?

I get an error message 'This content doesnt seem to be working'

Quote:

If you go to Tools>Addons>Plugins and make sure Flash (if it's present) is set to "Never Activate", restart the browser, then repeat the above - does anything change?

lighter973,

Have you tried using Google Chrome?

Quote:

Originally Posted by lighter973 (Post 6078683)

I get an error message 'This content doesnt seem to be working'

That's almost certainly not the error message you get - the BBC will not omit the apostrophe in "doesn't" - always copy and paste exact messages when asking for help.
(Some might consider this pedantry. It's not. Different search results are given when the apostrophe is included.)

Anyway, that error can unfortunately mean a variety of things:
* The BBC thinks you're outside the UK. (It has three different errors which may be given in that situation.)
* The BBC thinks your IP address belongs to a VPN (which are blocked because they're used to bypass the above UK-only restriction).
* Perhaps there's been a code update and you need to manually clear your caches (and possibly cookies) to avoid conflicts between old/new code.
* You're using a browser extension which blocks third-party scripts (e.g. uMatrix/NoScript) - if so you'll need to whitelist certain domains for iPlayer to work.
* There may be an issue on some of the iPlayer servers (this would usually cause the error intermittently not every time).
* Something else.

Press F12 and check the browser console and network tools for error messages or failed resource loading.

If you've got other devices on the same network, try accessing iPlayer with them to see if they work, or if there's another network you can try - if the same device works elsewhere it could be an IP issue, etc.

Other than that, you could give iPlayer Live Chat a try. (I don't know if they're any good or not.)

I've just seen youtube-dl mentioned on another thread.

Despite the name it's not Youtube-specific and handles hundreds of sites, including:

Code:

    bbc: BBC

    bbc.co.uk: BBC iPlayer

    bbc.co.uk:article: BBC articles

    bbc.co.uk:iplayer:playlist

    bbc.co.uk:playlist

So if the issue is browser/client specific, that might be a workaround worth considering.

Hmmm. The message I (in Ireland) get from iplayer is

Code:

BBC iPlayer only works in the UK. Sorry, it’s due to rights issues. In the UK? Here's some advice.

Occasionally in the bbc.com/news section, I can't see a video because 'This content is not available in your area.'

I hadn't tried youtube-dl. I will.

EDIT: youtube-dl returned the error

Code:

ERROR: bbc.co.uk returned error: geolocation

EDIT2:The error from This bbc.com/news video in Ireland is "This content doesn't seem to be working.

Try again later."

In the UK, people pay a television licence fee which is used to fund the BBC (You pay even if you only watch DVDs or satellite content from somewhere else in the world other than the BBC.) Recently, to use the iPlayer you had to register using an Email address and password at no cost in the UK. I think this was so they can allow access from the rest of the world providing they subscribe. The issue being, it wouldn't be fair if the Brits have to pay a licence and the R.O.W. saw stuff for free, hence the:

Quote:

ERROR: bbc.co.uk returned error: geolocation

My :twocents:

Play Bonny!

:hattip:

Fair enough. BBC is a good service. I never saw a reasonable way of getting some content from it or Channel 4. If they offered a Netflix-type paying service, I'd consider it.

Tried Chromium (Version 24.0.1312.52 (175374), get an error

Quote:

This player no longer works properly on your device. You'll need to update your browser or device to continue

if it matters Im using flashplayer 32.0.0.303

You should not need Flash for anything now (well, not iPlayer and other legitimate sites):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/q...r-issues/flash

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid (Post 6079085)

Fair enough. BBC is a good service. I never saw a reasonable way of getting some content from it or Channel 4. If they offered a Netflix-type paying service, I'd consider it.

They do. It's called Britbox.

Latest Firefox stops flash from working automatically but some sites that allow it look for it first and give an error.
Disable it completely and provided you're in UK, BBC iplayer will work (with html5, assume).

Quote:

Originally Posted by petelq (Post 6079140)

They do. It's called Britbox.

Good. I never heard of it, but will research it. does it cover ITV/Ch4 or Harlech by any chance?

EDIT: Searching on DuckDuckGo led me to Britbox.com, which threw me out.

Quote:

Unfortunately, BritBox is exclusively available in the United States and Canada.

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid (Post 6079392)

Good. I never heard of it, but will research it. does it cover ITV/Ch4 or Harlech by any chance?

EDIT: Searching on DuckDuckGo led me to Britbox.com, which threw me out.

I haven't looked at it. I was just aware that it existed. I know it includes ITV but I didn't know that it was exclusive to USA/Canada.