If you’re using Flash Professional CS5.5 (CS6 owners should follow these steps) and would like to take advantage of the AIR 3.5 SDK then perform the following steps for your operating system of choice.

Microsoft Windows

  1. Ensure that Flash Professional CS5.5 is closed.
  2. Download the AIR 3.5 SDK for Windows archive from the Adobe website.
  3. Copy the archive to your desktop and extract it to a folder.
    After unzipping you should be left with a folder named AdobeAIRSDK on your desktop. This folder will contain the AIR SDK.
  4. Using Windows Explorer, browse to Flash Professional’s root folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS5.5.
    On 32-bit versions of Windows the Program Files (x86) folder is named Program Files
  5. Find the AIR2.6 folder and rename it to AIR2.6-old.
  6. Copy the AdobeAIRSDK folder from the desktop to Flash Professional’s root folder and rename it to AIR2.6.
  7. Using Windows Explorer, browse to frameworks\libs\air within your newly renamed AIR2.6 folder.
  8. From this folder, copy airglobal.swc and paste it over the existing version of the file at C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS5.5\Common\Configuration\ActionScript 3.0\AIR2.6
  9. Using Windows Explorer, browse to C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS5.5\Common\Configuration\Players and open AiriPhone.xml using Notepad.
  10. Change the version attribute of the <player> tag to 18 and save the file: 
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<players>
  <player id="PFI1_0" version="18" asversion="3" minasversion="3">
  11. Staying within the same folder, perform the above step for AdobeAIR2_6.xml and Android.xml.

Mac OS X

  1. Ensure that Flash Professional CS5.5 is closed.
  2. Download the AIR 3.5 SDK for Mac OS X archive from the Adobe website.
  3. Copy the archive to your desktop and extract it to a folder.
    You should be left with a folder named AdobeAIRSDK on your desktop. This folder will contain the AIR SDK.
  4. Using Finder, browse to Flash Professional’s root folder: Applications/Adobe Flash CS5.5
  5. Find the AIR2.6 folder and rename it to AIR2.6-old.
  6. Copy the AdobeAIRSDK folder from the desktop to Flash Professional’s root folder and rename it to AIR2.6.
  7. Using Finder, browse to frameworks/libs/air within your newly renamed AIR2.6 folder.
  8. From this folder, copy airglobal.swc and paste it over the existing version of the file at Applications/Adobe Flash CS5.5/Common/Configuration/ActionScript 3.0/AIR2.6
  9. Using Finder, browse to Applications/Adobe Flash CS5.5/Common/Configuration/Players and open AiriPhone.xml using TextEdit.
  10. Change the version attribute of the <player> tag to 18 and save the file: 
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<players>
  <player id="PFI1_0" version="18" asversion="3" minasversion="3">
  11. Staying within the same folder, perform the above step for AdobeAIR2_6.xml and Android.xml.

Now whenever you create an AIR application it will be set to use the AIR 3.5 SDK.

If you encounter any problems then you may want to refer to Daniel Albu’s excellent tutorial on the ActiveTuts+ network. Alternatively consider taking a look at the following video by Brent Arnold. The video covers AIR 3.0 but the steps are the same.

Posted by: Date: September 28, 2011 Categories: Tutorials Tagged:

  1. Thank you very much for this howto!

    SeeD
    October 5, 2011 at 1:31 pm ·

  2. Very well, nice post !

    Matey
    October 7, 2011 at 3:51 pm ·

  3. thanks so much for the tutorial when I try this I get ” There is more than one definition of the AdobeAIR2_6 player. Only the first definition will be used.” I watched your video for Mac too, I thin that you meant 13 instead of 12.

    John Barrett
    October 13, 2011 at 6:33 pm ·

  4. Hi John. Yeah the video is by Brent Arnold who does some really great tutorial videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/iBrent. Unfortunately his video was for AIR 2.7, which explains why the version number was 12 rather than 13. But he does do a really great job of covering the overlay process so I thought it was worth adding a link.

    Actually, he now has a video for overlaying AIR 3.0 so I’ll update the link in my post to the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwVkK27Nors

    Christopher (Author)
    October 14, 2011 at 1:39 am ·

  5. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou! Don’t know why I couldn’t find this on the Adobe site but that’s a topic for another day.

    John
    December 1, 2011 at 11:51 pm ·

  6. Hey,
    Thanks for the post. I had a problem although i walked through your steps, i might be one of the very few unlucky cases but here is my issue maybe you can help : 1172: Definition __AS3__.vec:Vector could not be found.

    I get this whenever i publish with actionscript in the file. if i remove the scripts it works perfectly.

    Even if it just put a stop(); the error occurs.

    Thanks

    hicham
    December 8, 2011 at 9:59 pm ·

  7. Thank you very very very very very very very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Usner
    December 22, 2011 at 3:48 pm ·

  8. I followed these steps as well as those published by Adobe. Here is the issue. My app uses the flash.media::MicrophoneEnhancedOptions class that was available from 10.3 forward. I assume that AIR 3.0 supports this class but when I compile it creates and error.

    Randy
    January 13, 2012 at 12:44 am ·

  9. Hi Randy,

    The MicrophoneEnhancedOptions class is only available for Flash Player and AIR on desktop: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/acoustic-echo-cancellation.html

    Christopher (Author)
    January 16, 2012 at 5:59 pm ·

  10. Hi, I have followed the steps but when I try publishing for Android I get the following error :

    Error creating files.
    Unknown error.
    SDK is missing [my path]\Adobe Flash CD5.5\AIR2.6\lib\android\bin\aapt.exe

    Any ideas ?

    Alex Popescu
    January 19, 2012 at 10:24 am ·

  11. Cancel that, fixed !

    Alex Popescu
    January 19, 2012 at 10:28 am ·

  12. I followed all the instructions but couldn’t get my work-in-progress flash file to use the new AIR SDK. The funny thing was, when I created a brand new file, it used the new SDK without a hitch (I was testing with the new JSON class). As it turns out, I had to go into Actionscript 3 Settings and check off “Warnings Mode” (I usually deactivate this because it makes compiling take forever). When I ran it again, it worked! And after deactivated Warnings Mode is still worked. Not sure why this step was required. Ah, the joys of Flash. ;-P

    Gabe
    January 25, 2012 at 4:09 pm ·

  13. Thanks for the info Gabe!

    Christopher (Author)
    January 25, 2012 at 7:48 pm ·

  14. I think I overlay 3.1 as instructed, but I have yet to notice any changes for the better? Files take longer to compile and barely work on iOS. I have to keep reverting back to 2.6. :/

    Mat
    January 28, 2012 at 12:22 pm ·

  15. Hi – just went through the steps – thanks – but when publishing a project for iOS I am now getting: ios publishing requires files which are not installed

    Anyone seen this?

    Dave Mennenoh
    January 31, 2012 at 3:59 pm ·

  16. Mat – in 2.7 a big improvement was in CPU vs GPU rendering. If you’re targeting GPU – try changing to CPU and see if that helps. 2.6 is way slow compared to 2.7 – which should be slower than 3.1

    Dave Mennenoh
    January 31, 2012 at 4:02 pm ·

  17. Alex Popescu, could you tell me what you’ve done? I’m having the same issues, and don’t know how to get around it.

    Adrian Jackson
    February 2, 2012 at 8:16 pm ·

  18. Is it possible to overlay Air 3.1 on Flash 5? I don’t have 5.5 and I get an error about name spaces not matching when I follow this tuutorial. Thanks!

    John
    February 9, 2012 at 1:28 am ·

  19. Hi John,

    You could try the instructions on this site: http://blog.prevail.co.nz/2011/06/21/overlaying-air2-7-in-flash-cs5/

    It outlines the steps for overlaying AIR 2.7 onto CS5, but I’d imagine it will work for AIR 3.1 too. In steps 11, 12 & 13, you’ll need to update the version number from “12” to “14”. In step 14, change the namespace from “2.7” to “3.1”.

    I haven’t tried these steps myself so please let me know how you get on.

    Christopher (Author)
    February 9, 2012 at 10:20 am ·

  20. thanks! great work.
    very good and clear description.

    best wishes from austria,

    alex

    Alexander
    March 14, 2012 at 10:32 pm ·

  21. Hi

    Problem Alternativa3D with AIR 3.2 on iPad 2.

    I working on windows 7 creating this app by cs5.5 flash pro.
    I update air to 3.2 (http://www.flashdeveloper.co/post/20583114199/air32-in-flash-cs-55)
    I have Alternativa3D version: 8.27.0
    I publish this by Player: AIR for iOS – (in Flash Pro cs5.5) I download air 3.2 and works fine on PC with alternativa3D 8.27.0) with some demos that alternativa team gives.
    If I want to publish to iOS (iPad or iPhone by flash pro cs.5.5) is NOT working.
    It’s not working on device – iPad 2.
    I put example of alternativa3D – simple box.
    I run application by clicking the icon on iPad 2.
    When application run I see only the grey background. In next option I put some layer in flash with text and vector symbol above action script to see if it’s work with this.

    I run App on iPad 2 and I see only my layer that I made. RenderMode is GPU. I test this on AUTO and CPU too (xml is correct define).

    When I put Rendering to CPU mode I have error(Error #2044: Unhandled ErrorEvent:. text=Error #3702: Context3D not available). So I thing it’s correct to put Rendering to GPU mode. Like I said On PC everything is working fine – website, air.

    Please some help.

    TOM
    April 12, 2012 at 9:27 am ·

  22. Hi Tom. Please try using “Direct” render mode. To do this you’ll need to manually edit your FLA’s application descriptor file. Stage3D content such as Alternativa3D relies on “Direct” render mode rather than “GPU” or “CPU”.

    This article should give you some more info: http://www.flashdeveloper.co/post/20960460501/stage3d-android-ios-flash-cs55

    Christopher (Author)
    April 12, 2012 at 4:43 pm ·

  23. Thank you Christopher.
    I was writing about this with danielalbu from his site and He found problem.

    I want to ask something:

    Well, can someone tell me what engine 3D will be better to use on mobile devices? With ligh, shadow, reflection? This 3 options is very important to me. Becouse right now I use alternativa3D. Light works fine. When I use shadow from example I thing fps is not enought smooth some times and reflections doesn’t work(I use examples of reflection from alternativa3D team made).

    If I make mess on this site asking about 3D – Sorry.

    I will be glad for some information.

    TOM
    April 13, 2012 at 7:46 am ·

  24. Hi Tom. I’m not sure what 3D engines are best optimized for mobile. I’ve seen some nice Away3D4 demos running on iPad (http://vimeo.com/40151545) and I’ve also heard great things about Flare3D too (http://www.gotoandlearn.com/play.php?id=156).

    Christopher (Author)
    April 14, 2012 at 11:55 am ·

  25. thanks so much for the tutorial ,but i had a problem when i tried to test the Starling demo in flash cs5.5 with the player version “Air for ios”,i can’t see anything on the stage, i’m sure the demo is running correct for the mouse cursor turn to buttonMode while moving on a button which i can’t see it.
    when i change the player version to flashPlayer 11.2 , the demo displayed !
    why?

    Yao.He
    April 21, 2012 at 9:18 am ·

  26. Hi Christopher, I have followed these instructions, with air 3.2 and flash 5.5. I am working with a file from your book, chapter 6 recipe 8 final (sprite sheet loading), and nothing is appearing on the stage. Even a vector shape I draw right on the stage is not there. If I switch it to a deploy to flash player, all works well. Any idea where I have gone wrong? When I put in traces, all the code seems to be firing, no errors.

    Gabe
    April 23, 2012 at 12:28 am ·

  27. Feel free to delete my last comment, as I simply restored my set up to air 2.6 and everything is working right now. I think I will just wait for CS6 with the air updating built in as I obviously am not clever enough to do this manual overlay, lol 🙂

    Gabe
    April 23, 2012 at 8:49 pm ·

  28. Hi Yao.He. Could you double-check that you are using “direct” render mode when testing Starling content. You can do this by opening your FLA’s application descriptor XML file and changing the renderMode tag. It should look like this:

    <renderMode>direct</renderMode>

    Christopher (Author)
    April 24, 2012 at 1:53 pm ·

  29. Hi Gabe. I’m not sure what’s causing your issue but you could try using Brent Arnold’s YouTube video instead. He does a very good job of going over the steps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwVkK27Nors.

    His video is for AIR 3.0 but you can fix that by typing version number “15” within the AiriPhone.xml file instead (10.00 minutes into his video).

    Christopher (Author)
    April 24, 2012 at 2:03 pm ·

  30. Hi, thanx for the post, was helpful but I’m facing a problem, I have Flash CS5 but I have only AIK2.0 folder I do not have AIR2.6 so I followed your steps and did the changes to AIK2.0 folder itself, while publishing the air file is not generated but xml file is created please help. If I have flash cs5.5 or flash cs6 will this problem be solved?

    Ajeeth boaz
    October 18, 2012 at 6:11 am ·

  31. Hi Ajeeth. If you’re using CS5 then this link may be able to help you: http://blog.prevail.co.nz/2011/06/21/overlaying-air2-7-in-flash-cs5/

    Christopher (Author)
    October 18, 2012 at 2:57 pm ·

  32. Hi, I tried that too I’ve posted my same question over there too. Meanwhile I donwloaded trial version of cs6 and tried adding AIR 2.6 in it , that also failed…

    Ajeeth boaz
    October 19, 2012 at 7:52 am ·

  33. Hey, thanks for this post. I just used again today to overlay CS5.5 with the latest Air 3.5 SDK. Cheers

    Murdoch
    January 3, 2013 at 5:31 am ·

  34. For overlaying CS5.5 with Air 3.5 SDK, what version do I have to use in the AirPhone.xml?

    How can I check in Adobe CS5.5, if the overlaying really works?
    Regards,

    AH
    January 13, 2013 at 1:27 pm ·

  35. Hi AH. For AIR 3.5, use a SWF version number of 18.

    As for checking that the overlay worked. If you’re working on an AIR project then use the following lines of code to determine the version number of the AIR SDK.

    import flash.desktop.NativeApplication;
    trace(“version number: ” + NativeApplication.nativeApplication.runtimeVersion);

    For a Flash Player/Web project use the following:
    import flash.system.Capabilities;
    trace(“version number: ” + Capabilites.version);

    Christopher (Author)
    January 13, 2013 at 7:02 pm ·

  36. I often visit this website to get help with overlaying the newest AIR SDK for Flash Pro CS5.5. Thanks for the great posts!

    But yesterday I’ve updated my Nexus 7 to Android 4.2.2. and from then the AIR SDK 3.5 wasn’t deploying on my device anymore. Luckily I’ve found this solution, which I would like to share with you all:

    You need to replace some files on this folder: Adobe Flash CS5.5/AIR2.6/lib/android/bin. Replace those files: aapt, adb and dx.jar with files coming from the latest Android SDK (http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html): sdk/platform-tools, copy the files aapt & adb. Within sdk/platform-tools/lib/ copy the dx.jar file. If you are a Windows user you will also need to replace the dll files.
    (solution by: Aymeric Lamboley)

    Keep up the good stuff!

    Remco
    February 22, 2013 at 4:57 pm ·

  37. Excellent! Thanks for the information Remco! Really appreciated.

    Christopher (Author)
    February 24, 2013 at 1:44 pm ·

  38. Hi,
    What should be the version number for AIR 3.9? Also after doing all the steps it is still showing me the air version 2.6.

    Thanks

    Omair Rais
    January 2, 2014 at 3:04 pm ·

  39. Hi Amair,

    I believe the version number for AIR 3.9 is 22. Please let me know how you get on.

    Thanks.

    Christopher (Author)
    January 2, 2014 at 9:19 pm ·

  40. Check the authoring guidelines in the release notes. It will tell you the version to be set. It is 29 for 18.0.0.199

    Anupama Apte
    August 17, 2015 at 2:52 pm ·

  41. excellent.
    btw flash 23 and air 23 = swf version 34

    zermok
    September 27, 2016 at 10:56 pm ·