Can't Clear Adobe Flash Player Storage

[PGB1]

Hello Folks!
This is "Computer Problem" week around here. I apologize that I am posting so many questions in the last few days. These are items I can't figure out or find answers to without bugging you all.

My wife's MacBook Pro running 10.6.8 is having a problem with Adobe Flash Player. When we go to System Preferences & try to clear local storage, it refuses. I get an error message saying the operation can not be completed. It also will not clear stored data & settings.

It used to work fine and on our other MacBook Pro it works fine for all user accounts.
(Same OS and Flash versions on both computers. Same browser versions, too.)

And, setting the choice to "Ask" if a site can store data is not retained- But only sometimes. It sometimes will stay for days before reverting back to "Allow".

The odd thing is that this happens on only two of the three user accounts on the computer. The administrator can clear the data, but the storage settings gets sent to Allow sometimes.

I've tried uninstalling Flash Player with the uninstall app & reinstalling it. I've tried updating it. I also tried repairing permissions with Disk Utility and Onyx. The problem remains.

Do you all have an idea of what is goofed up?
Also, where on the disk does Adobe Flash Player actually store the data left by sites?
Thanks Much,
Paul

PS: Also note that I am having trouble on that computer with Stickies preferences not being saved and with Safari preferences not being saved. I don't know if they are related to the Adobe Flash problem, so I thought I'd better mention it.

 

[bobtomay]

I would first do a repair permissions - probably will not do anything, but, I've seen it fix this sort of thing before.

Then try deleteing the .plist file for all the affected apps.
That's the preference file and they'll be recreated with defaults first time you open the app again.

They'll be in ~/Library/Preferences (That ~ is your home folder)
com.apple.Safari.plist
com.apple.Stickies.plist

With Flash - I'd probably try uninstalling it again.
In the same Preferences folder as above, delete the Macromedia folder.
Then try reinstalling Flash.

 

[PGB1]

Hi Bobtomay Thank You for taking the time to reply with good suggestions.

Stickies is fixed thanks to members here giving me good ideas. I ended up telling the access list in file information for the plist & Stickies database that "Everyone" can read & write. Beats me how this worked because each user profile already had access to its own Stickies database and plist.

Adobe Flash & Safari remain troublesome.
Quick Recap-
Flash cannot clear stored data (Error message attached)
Safari will not clear stored data nor save any preference changes
These happen in the two non-administrator accounts only. The administrator account, both work fine.

Permissions Repair with Disk Utility and Onyx didn't help with the Safari problems or Adobe Flash. I next tried the Everyone trick I did for Stickies. No Luck.

So, I tried removing Safari plist. Still no luck
Next, I used the uninstaller to delete Adobe Flash and manually removed Macromedia. I downloaded Flash & reinstalled. No luck.
I've attached a screen shot of the error message I get when I try to clear stored data from Flash.

For Safari, the problems also remain.
I can not change the home page nor can I clear stored website data when going to Preferences-Privacy. It clears and comes right back. Oddly, teo of the stored sites are web pages I looked at before the problem started, but not since. For this example- Home page is apple.com. The stored sites that keep returning are 2 from Apple, 3 from Google and MrBike, Vintage CCM. 9MrBike & CCM are the ones mentioned above)

I went to Library/Safari/Local Storage to see if access was allowed by this user profile. It's OK.

The two non-administrator accounts (user profiles) have the same problem. The administrator account has no problems with Safari nor Adobe Flash.

I am wondering if there is a file in the administrator account that is somehow over-riding permissions for the two user accounts for adobe Flash and Safari?

 

[PGB1]

Now It's Getting Scary!

At first, I thought only Adobe Flash, Safari and Stickies had problems.
Now I find that several other programs are wonky as well.

An example is iCal. If an appointment is entered while logged in as either of the two non-administrator users, the appointment is not saved. If, for instance, the view of the calendar is changed, it is not saved upon exit. (Administrator account works fine)

Some, but not all, other programs have similar glitches, mostly with saving preference changes.. (But, administrator account still works fine) And, some programs seem to work properly. I haven't checked them all.

Except for Adobe Flash, all of the problem children are programs that came with OS X. But that computer only has a few 'aftermarket' programs on it. Word and Excel work great. Virtual Box and the Windows programs inside its virtual machine are also A-OK.

A bunch of permission repairs via Disk Utility and Onxy didn't solve the problem. I also used Onxy''s Clean Up tab to do much cleaning and used its function to force the maintenance scripts. Ditching plists also was of no help on this particular problem.

It is possible that some sort of system wide ownership thing got changed somehow, making it so only the administrator owns these items?
Is there, by some luck, a way to correct ownership on a wide basis? I tried searching and found lots of "Do This" and "Don't Do This" articles, so I chickened out.