I recently got a new IMac
Upon logging into my class site (I'm an administrator) a flash display of old photographs on the home page does not load. The message says a flash player is missing. Upon clicking for more information, I see it requires Adobe Flash Player which is on the computer. I can't figure out why the website isn't reading the presence of the flash player. Any ideas as to what I'm not doing to get it going again?

Does your browser have it installed?

Click HERE to check

I have downloaded it 3 times now, and it confirms that it is downloaded...it even shows to be there, but the message I get when I go to the Adobe site your link takes me to, as well as my class homepage, is "missing plug in" Not sure what else to do.

Here are some docs from Apple about Flash on iMac LINK

There might be some extra steps required. I am not that familiar with iMac, just what I can read

You could try Firefox too. That also works on an iMac and might be quite a bit faster than Safari. Many of my classmates with iMacs use Firefox.

Thanks for the input and the docs. However, when I booted up this morning, lo and behold, plug-in flash player is up and running. Really, I downloaded that thing 3 times with no success. You'd think it wouldn't be too much problem to put a popup upon finishing the download and install process that says, "you must re-start your computer for changes to take effect." or something to that effect. I don't do this enough to remember that. ;-(

You might just have had to close the browser and open it again? I don't use Safari, but this sounds like a Safari bug instead.

No it is not a bug... for the longest time they were not compatible... but the forces have come together and Adobe now works in a Apple environment... I just think that like fruit salad apples and oranges can play nice together. both are good platforms and Microsoft and Apple software developers get blamed for so many glitches with software to hardware (and now cross environments!) so it must be a bug... next thing we get is Windows 8 and Apple 10.xxx. It is just everybody wants it bigger, more powerful, faster and don't realize what that takes to rush a system in to play before it's ready... Back to your solution, basic computers 101... if you load something new... ALWAYS REBOOT... Give the system (Apple or Microsoft to let it place all files where they need to g and be stored.) Yes, some times you may have to load several times and reboot just as many. It is the nature of the beast!
I think it is GOD's way to keep us humble!

I was just mentioning that just closing and restarting the browser probably would have made the "addon" work. It used to be that the browser had to be closed to do installs (even for a PC). Or even an uninstall. If I had one, I'd be 100% sure. Here's a LINK describing.

You do not have to reboot for common browser addons like Flash - for sure not on a PC. I suppose one could call it a desired enhancement to make it sound positive vs a "bug". But to me (a Windows developer) it's a bug that somewhere along the line a message wasn't issued to close the browser as many addons do

I rarely reboot just installing "programs". I even installed a new network driver without rebooting. I think my video driver is also that way. Did that six months ago, so can't remember 100% - the network one I did 3 days ago. That used to require rebooting way back, but no longer because of driver interface design improvements.

So no, don't always Reboot. Most well designed programs will tell you when a reboot is required. Usually those are system level programs, not regular apps (which Flash is).

As a last resort, reboot if something doesn't work that should, although other than the time it takes, rebooting is not harmful. (More than once gets back to the programmer joke, "let's run it again".)

A hearty agree... I just think too many blame it on a bug (because everyone slams Windows or Mac's but they are what we have to work with.... for me I won a IMac and a top of the line Del touch screen (although I use the mouse more than touch.. Both I keep tuned and up to date...
So enjoy