My system is Mac OS 10.4.2 (I think that this should work for most versions of
OS X)... I don't think that this is anywhere else on the forums or in support.
This past week, I installed Flash 8 and Flash Player 8. Right after that, Flash
stopped working in Safari, but continued to work in IE 5. What seems to be the
problem is that the installation of those two cause problems with read/write
permissions for Flash files (although, I don't fully understand why).

First, close all open programs. If you like to have peace of mind, backup all
important documents (although this process should not cause any major problems).

In order to fix the problem, I opened Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities)
and selected my hard drive. In the middle of the window, towards the bottom,
are two buttons: "Verify Disk Permissions" and "Repair Disk Permissions." The
"Verify" button scans your drive and displays which files have incorrect
permission settings. Press that button first and scroll down through the list
to see if any of the Flash files are located within. If they are, click "Repair
Disk Permissions" and the program should automatically fix all problems.

Open Safari and the Flash items on web pages should now be functioning.

thanks man, worked perfectly... i feel kind of like an idiot for not thinking of that myself... thanks again for posting this :)

FLASH Player 8 does`n play the files as Flash Player 7

i'm with afeks1.

i've tried install/uninstall at least 3 times. the ironic thing is that i can
view flash websites, except for the macromedia site. doesn't make sense to me.
i've tried on safari, i.e., and firefox.

the comment from jake at macromedia felt dismissive:
___________________________________________________
We have tested the link
(http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/dw_getting_started.html)
you have sent to us before and it seems to be working properly. We have no
reports for any site maintenance or issues at this time.

We hope that you find the above information useful. Should you have further
concern, please feel free to contact us.

Regards,
Jake G.
Macromedia Technical Support
___________________________________________________
i reinstalled osx.4.2 and it STILL DOESN'T WORK!
this sucks!

And still no response from the macromedia peeps. Please someone post another
fix.

No flash content whatsover in safari, but works in all other browsers.
Repaired permissions and reinstalled several times. Please help.