Flash textfields not showing text

The problem

Classic Textfields in Flash are not showing certain fonts. There is text in these fields but they are invisible in Flash and don’t render when exporting as an SWF. Only some fonts such as Helvetica Neue and Din are effected.

This is the problem that faced me this morning, and given the deadlines we always have to deal with here at Kino it was causing me some serious anxiety issues.

Oddly my colleague Simon also suddenly started to have fonts disappear on his machine too. In my case it was Helvetica Neue that wasn’t showing up in classic textfields, for Simon it was DinPro. Now the fonts are listed in the font list within Flash, but when the problem fonts are selected the textfield would essentially go invisible and nothing is rendered.

We assumed initially a corrupted font, but as more and more fonts in Flash failed to work we realised that something more serious was awry. Clearly Flash can be buggy, but this was a new one and causing problems, but the good news is that if this is happening to you then we have a solution.

The Answer

It’s a problem with the 13/12/2012 Window Security Update number 2753842. Here’s what you need to do to get Flash working properly again:

1. Go to Control Panel/System and Security/Windows Update.
2. Click View Update History.
3. Click Installed Updates.
4. Find the Security Update number 2753842, right click it and choose ‘Uninstall’.
5. Reboot.
6. Go back to Control Panel/System and Security/Windows Update, but this time choose “x important update is available”.
7. Right click the Security Update 2753842 and select ‘Hide Update’. This prevents it from being reinstalled.
8. You’re done!

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