Adobes Wives
To aggravate the situation further Adobe Air would occasionally go through the most ridiculous upgrade routine. Ridiculous because it’s slow, asks too many stupid questions and it’s only there because the BBC iPlayer needs it.
So I decided do or die was the order of the day and ready for a few hours debugging decided to find out what was going on. Simply uninstalling and reinstalling does not work.
My laptop uses Windows 7 but I suspect the fix will be similar regardless of your operating system, you may need to hunt around for these directories.
Simply uninstalling and reinstalling does not work.
How to fix a broken BBC iPlayer
1. Uninstall BBC iPlayer
2. Uninstall Adobe Air
3. Locate C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\AIR\ and then delete the directory
4. Locate C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\BBCiPlayerDesktop.xxx and delete the directory.
Note the xxx in the BBCiPlayerDesktop directory name is a long string of numbers which is likely to be different with some installations, no matter what it is remove the entire directory.
5. Install BBC iPlayer again – it will automatically install Adobe Air again.
Run CCleaner
This is optional but will save you precious memory and keep your other programs operating without interference. Download a copy of CCleaner from CCleaner.com. It’s donaware which means you can use it without payment and if you like it can buy the author a beer.
Under Tools select “startup” and you will see all the items your PC is attempting to load. Disable the ones you don’t need but in particular all the Adobe entries, none of them are needed. Why have something check for upgrades every time you start your PC when you rarely use it?
Some Adobe start up applications also hang around waiting for you to use them like their PDF reader. They claim it improves the loading performance of their applications which is just an excuse for a poorly written program.
If you have a modern PC the difference is a small handful of milliseconds, but for each one of those they rob performance from other programs. So if Adobe is important to you leave as is and suffer the consequences, otherwise get rid of it and let other programs breath.
Yes, I think Adobe, literally anything Adobe is as welcome as a group hug in a burns unit.
Don’t forget step 6:
Whatever you do, DO NOT LET AIR UPGRADE ITSELF TO 3.1 AGAIN!
I’ve blocked the upgrade checker from doing anything using ZoneAlarm
The problem occured with me when Air upgraded to 3.3, finally cured by a reinstall, then came back when I let Air upgrade itself
I`ve been told by iPlayer `support` to uninstall Air & iPlayer & delete the Air file & iPlayer file as you have recommended but where are these files? I`ve been searching for days. Air 3.4 was supposed to fix this. I never had a problem with Air 3.3, it lost all my downloaded progs 18 August 2012. They won`t acknowledge there is another problem as no-one else is reporting it to them. I found your website via Digital Spy Media Services forum. There are about 4 or 5 others on there who have lost downloads, one has managed to find the Air & iPlayer files. Please help me, how do I locate these files? iPlayer `support` are useless.
The full address is in 3 & 4 but remember to replace USERNAME
Having the same problem however can’t locate the files in 3 & 4 – in Users/Username there is no AppData etc. Have searched for AppData or Roaming but no luck. Can you suggest where else I might find these directories? Thanks
Apologies please ignore previous comment – it came up under Roaming when I searched again! Thanks so much for this info
Thank you so much! After following the instructions on the BBC website (uninstall Adobe Air/iplayer and reinstall Adobe Air 3.4) and iplayer still not working I was tearing my hair out. My old downloaded programmes have come back too :)
Excellent advice – mine stopped working I think after upgrade to AIR 3.5. Working fine now after following tips above. Has iplayer sorted any snags and is it safe to upgrade in line with iplayers recommendations (after re-installing iplayer the adobe AIR is an older version)
BBC has managed to destroy a very good service provided by iPlayer desktop. It was one of the best TV channels in the world. It appears not to have provided any solution for the wreck, has not communicated with users,and has let the mess drag on for months. It has found it easy enough to sack its CEO – who will it sack for this screwup and when will Licence Holders get our our’s service back. Are we all too scared to jump up and down and protest publically.
many thianks – after a lot of messing amnaged to fix it :)
How can one get back the programmes in the Repository?
I went back to Adobe Air 3.5
But the earlier recorded programmes don’t open. (i renamed folder and may put them back in the new one)
Let Beep solve that too for us!
Thanks for posting this information, finally got the damned thing working again after weeks of frustration….. bookmarked and shared!! :)
Brilliant! Your instructions worked perfectly – and I live in Argentina and access via proxy server. Indebted. Thank you.