Video
What is an FLV file?
Updated Jul 2026
FLV (Flash Video) is a video container format built to stream through Adobe Flash Player, the plugin that once powered video on most of the web. It compresses video and audio together into one file, which made it common for downloaded clips and old web video. Since Flash Player was discontinued, almost nothing plays FLV natively anymore.
- Extension
- .flv
- Type
- Video
- Typically
- Legacy web video
- Compression
- Lossy
Why FLV exists
FLV was Adobe's answer to streaming video in a browser back when broadband was still slow and plugins ran most of the interactive web. Sites like early YouTube used it because it played through the Flash Player plugin, which was installed on nearly every computer at the time.
Inside an FLV file is a container holding a compressed video track, usually Sorenson or VP6 in older files, and an audio track, often MP3 or AAC. The format itself doesn't do the compressing, it just wraps whatever the encoder produced into a file the Flash Player knew how to read.
Flash Player was pulled from every major browser and officially killed by Adobe at the end of 2020, so FLV lost its native player almost overnight. People still run into FLV files from old video downloads, archived recordings, security camera exports, and some screen recording tools that never updated their output format. None of it plays in a modern browser or on a phone, so it needs converting, usually to MP4, before it's watchable again.
The trade-offs
Strengths
- Small file size for standard-definition video
- Was supported almost everywhere while Flash Player was still installed
- Simple container that many older editing tools can still read
- Still used by a handful of legacy recording and security camera software
Watch-outs
- Adobe Flash Player was discontinued at the end of 2020
- Doesn't play natively in any modern browser
- Not supported on phones or tablets
- Most current editing software has dropped support for it
- Needs converting to something like MP4 to be watchable today
A note on privacy
FLV files don't usually carry the kind of location metadata a photo does, but the video itself, whether it's an old home recording, a security camera clip, or a downloaded lecture, can still be sensitive. Uploading it to an online converter means that footage sits on someone else's server while it processes. Converting on your own computer keeps the video itself on your machine the entire time.
Convert an FLV file
- Convert FLV to GIF
- Convert FLV to MP4
- Convert FLV to MOV
- Convert FLV to MKV
- Convert FLV to WebM
- Convert FLV to AVI
- Convert FLV to WMV
- Convert FLV to M4V
Questions
How do I open an FLV file?
Modern browsers and video players no longer support FLV directly, since Flash Player is discontinued. The reliable option is converting it to MP4, which plays on virtually any device.
Is FLV the same as MP4?
No. Both are containers for video and audio, but MP4 is the modern standard supported everywhere, while FLV was built around Flash Player and has no native support left on current browsers or phones.
Why do I have FLV files on my computer?
They're usually leftovers from an older video download, an archived recording, a security camera export, or an older screen recording tool that saved in that format by default.
Can I convert FLV without uploading it anywhere?
Yes. A desktop app like Morphjet converts FLV to MP4 on your own computer, so the video never has to be uploaded to a server to be processed.
Morphjet opens and converts FLV and 1,800+ other formats, all on your own computer. Launching this July.