Firefox switching to HTML5 from HTML Automatically

Apr 22, 2014

Does anyone know why Firefox will (sometimes) automatically switch to HTML5 content? I have two colleagues that have Windows 7 with Firefox 28 installed on their PCs. From the exact same link, they each open a Storyline course in Firefox. For one, it plays the flash version of the course (desired outcome). For the other, it plays the HTML5 version.

I assume there's an easy explanation for that - does anyone know?

Thanks so much!
Nick 

14 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Pierre,

Recently firefox started blocking Flash by default, so you will want to review the solutions here and ensure you have the most recent version of Flash. Also make sure you're pointing to the story.html file in the published output so that Storyline will show them the correct version based on how they're accessing it. 

Pierre Jouan

Hi Ashley,

Actually Flash is not blocked by Firefox because Flash sites, and some SL published output, work perfectly and the lastest Flash version is installed.

I do point the story.html file but, for some reason, it switches to HTML5 page (story_html5.html). This won't happen with IE or Chrome.

I thought this has to do with LMS but the behaviour is the same with a simple Web output.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

HI Pierre,

I can't think of a reason that Firefox would choose to display the HTML5 output over the Flash version unless that is what you were pointing to using the story_html5.html file vs. the story.html file. Could you share a link to the course so that we could test how it's working in our versions of Firefox as well? Have you also tried hosting the course on another web site or LMS? 

Pierre Jouan

I did further testing : it looks like the version of Firefox makes the difference.

I published a very simple, single slide, file.

I have the latest version (40) and it switches to HTML5.

I downloaded an old version (17) and it happily plays the SWF version.

Also, if I disable the HTML5 detection in the story.html file (var g_bHtml5Supported = false;), the Flash version plays perfectly on the latest Firefox.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Pierre, 

I am using that same version of firefox and haven't run into issues with it automatically directing to the HTML5 version over the Flash version. As I mentioned, Firefox by default is blocking some Flash content as detailed here, so you'll want to look into that as well. If you have a link to the course I'm also happy to test in my version of Firefox to see how it behaves. 

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