How to use Firefox to Download Flash Files

Today, Flash is everywhere. Animations, music, games, advertisements or even streaming presentations.

How can you download some of these flash files to watch in your own time? Or convert them to another format. Or use them in a presentation.

Flash animation files are embedded as SWF (Small Web Format) files in webpages. Rather than depending on any software or a third-party website, downloading Flash content is straightforward.   The only tool required is a browser.

Note: It pays to clear the cache of all old files before navigating to the desired page. It makes the Flash file search a lot easier.

1. Start Firefox and browse to the page which contains the embedded SWF Flash file that you are trying to download. Let the SWF file stream through once completely.
2. On any empty part of the page, right-click and select the Page Info context menu option. Or alternatively, go to Tools – Page Info.
3. Select the Media tab. The Media tab lists all image formats, icons, style sheets and flash files that were rendered by the webpage.
4. Look amongst the items to find the particular file with the SWF extension. The type column will show up with an Embed filetype. Highlight the file and click Save as to save the file on your hard drive.