Fixing TIA Portal V20 Panel Image Missing Error on TP700 Comfort

Problem Description

During a project download to a SIMATIC TP700 Comfort panel from TIA Portal V20, the engineering software aborts the transfer and reports that the panel image is missing. The dialog typically appears after the compile step, when the HMI runtime tries to reconcile the configured panel firmware revision against the image repository on the engineering PC. The fault is reproducible even after a clean install of the latest TIA Portal V20 service pack and after running every available update. The behavior is independent of the project size, the configured HMI tags, or the target hardware order number, and it affects both online transfers via PROFINET/Ethernet and offline image provisioning for pre-staged panels.

A representative symptom chain reported in the field:

• Installed package: 109825605_Unified_Comfort_Panel_V20_0.exe, file size approximately 2.1 GB, distributed via Siemens Industry Online Support (SIOS) under entry ID 109825605.
• All available TIA Portal V20 updates and HSPs (Hardware Support Packages) installed through the TIA Administration Tool.
• Compile completes with no diagnostics.
• Download to TP700 Comfort panel aborts with a "Panel image missing" or "The panel image could not be found" message before the runtime files are written to the panel.

Affected Products and Versions

The error is specific to TIA Portal V20 in combination with Comfort Panel and Basic Panel (2nd generation) hardware. Components that exhibit the symptom:

TIA Portal releases confirmed to require the PIU step:

• TIA Portal V20 (all service packs up to and including the latest HSP)
• STEP 7 / WinCC Unified V20 environment

Root Cause Analysis

Starting with TIA Portal V20, Siemens decoupled the panel image binaries from the main engineering installation. In TIA Portal V17 and V18, the panel image files were placed into the TIA installation directory during setup, which meant that a single .exe install left the engineering PC in a usable state. In TIA Portal V20 the panel image layer is treated as an OS-style firmware payload. It is no longer part of the base install and is no longer copied by the Unified_Comfort_Panel_V20_0.exe package, even when the full 2.1 GB install is performed.

Internally the panel image is stored in a vendor-defined directory that TIA Portal queries at compile and download time. The exact path resolves to a subfolder of %ProgramData% on Windows 10/11 and Windows Server 2019/2022, typically under:

The PIU (Panel Image Updater, executable name HMI_PIU_Installer_2.0.0.0.exe) writes the panel image into that directory tree and registers the version with the TIA Portal configuration service. If the directory is empty, TIA Portal V20 aborts the download with the "Panel image missing" error.

Three independent root causes are observed in practice:

1. The PIU was never installed. Most common case when migrating a workstation from V18 to V20.
2. The PIU was installed but no image has been downloaded. The installer is a bootstrap; the actual image must be pulled from SIOS in a second step.
3. The PIU installer fails to launch. A console window flashes and disappears immediately. This is a known symptom when the installer is launched from a location that does not provide administrative elevation context (for example, double-clicking from a network share or a non-elevated Explorer).

Solution 1 - Install the Panel Image Updater (PIU)

This is the supported and recommended resolution. The PIU is documented under Siemens support entry ID 109825750.

Prerequisites

• Windows 10 (64-bit, version 1809 or newer) or Windows 11, or Windows Server 2019 / 2022
• TIA Portal V20 installed and licensed
• Local administrator rights on the engineering PC
• Read/write access to %ProgramData%\Siemens\Automation\HmiPanelImages\
• Internet access from the engineering PC to support.industry.siemens.com

Step-by-Step Procedure

1. Close TIA Portal completely, including the TIA Portal background services (right-click the TIA Portal systray icon and select Exit).
2. Open a browser and navigate to the Siemens support entry ID 109825750 on SIOS. Save the package HMI_PIU_Installer_2.0.0.0.exe to a local folder, for example C:\Temp\PIU\. Do not execute from a network share.
3. Right-click HMI_PIU_Installer_2.0.0.0.exe and select Run as administrator. Confirm the UAC prompt.
4. Follow the installer wizard. Accept the license agreement. The default install path places the PIU under C:\Program Files\Siemens\Automation\HMI_PIU\.
5. Launch the installed Panel Image Updater from the Start menu (under Siemens Automation).
6. In the PIU main window, click Check for updates. The tool queries SIOS for the latest available panel images that match the installed TIA Portal version.
7. Select the panel image that matches your TP700 Comfort firmware. For TIA Portal V20 the image is typically labeled with a V20 build identifier. Tick the corresponding entries for each panel family you use (Comfort, Basic 2nd Gen, Mobile Panel).
8. Click Download. Progress is shown per image. Image size per panel is approximately 250-500 MB; allow time on metered links.
9. After download completes, click Install. The PIU copies the binaries to %ProgramData%\Siemens\Automation\HmiPanelImages\<panel>\<image version>\ and registers the manifest.
10. Close the PIU. Re-launch TIA Portal V20.
11. Open the affected project, select the TP700 Comfort device, and confirm the device configuration. The Device View should no longer flag a missing image.
12. Compile (Project tree > right-click the HMI > Compile > Software (rebuild all)) and attempt the download again.

Solution 2 - Offline Installation of the Panel Image

When SIOS access is not available from the engineering PC (for example, in air-gapped plants or restricted networks), the panel image can be installed offline. The procedure is documented in section 1.2 Offline installation of Panel Images V17/V16 recommended for update of the PIU user manual that ships with the installer.

Prerequisites for Offline Install

• Panel image archive obtained from SIOS on a workstation with internet access. The archive filename follows the pattern HMI_PIU_Image_<family>_V<version>.zip.
• Working PC with the PIU already installed.
• Local administrator rights.

Step-by-Step Procedure

1. Transfer the panel image archive to the engineering PC, for example via a USB drive scanned for malware.
2. Open an elevated command prompt (Run as administrator).
3. Launch the PIU in offline mode by running HMI_PIU_Installer_2.0.0.0.exe /offline. The switch causes the PIU to look for local image archives rather than querying SIOS.
4. In the PIU main window, click Import local image and browse to the archive.
5. Select the target folder. The default path is %ProgramData%\Siemens\Automation\HmiPanelImages\. Do not change this path unless your TIA Portal installation has been moved by your IT administrator.
6. Confirm. The PIU extracts the archive and writes the manifest entry.
7. Restart TIA Portal and retry the download.

For a fully manual install (bypassing the PIU GUI entirely) the steps are:

1. Create the target directory if it does not exist: mkdir "%ProgramData%\Siemens\Automation\HmiPanelImages\TP700_Comfort\V20.0.0\"
2. Extract the image archive contents into that directory. The expected structure is: TP700_Comfort\V20.0.0\Image.bin
TP700_Comfort\V20.0.0\Manifest.xml
TP700_Comfort\V20.0.0\Signature.sig
3. Register the manifest with the TIA Portal configuration. This step is normally performed by the PIU; without it the image is not visible to the engineering tools. Use the PIU Refresh button to scan the directory and import any manually copied images.
4. Restart TIA Portal.

Solution 3 - Resolving the PIU Launcher Crash

A frequent follow-up symptom is that the PIU executable launches, a DOS window flashes briefly, and the installer disappears without any error message. The root cause is missing elevation or a corrupted package.

Diagnostic Checks

Launching the PIU from an Elevated Command Prompt

1. Press Win+X and select Terminal (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin).
2. Navigate to the directory containing the installer: cd C:\Temp\PIU
3. Execute the installer directly: .\HMI_PIU_Installer_2.0.0.0.exe
4. If a console window appears and stays visible, capture the error text. Typical errors include 0x80070005 Access is denied or 0x80004005 Unspecified error.

Verification

After installing the PIU and downloading the image, confirm the fix using the following steps:

1. In TIA Portal V20, open the project that previously failed to download.
2. Select the TP700 Comfort device in the project tree and open Device View.
3. Check the Diagnostics tab. No Panel image missing or Image not found entry should appear.
4. Right-click the HMI device and select Compile > Software (rebuild all). The compile should finish without image-related warnings.
5. Right-click the HMI device and select Download to device > All.
6. Monitor the Load preview dialog. The line Panel image should list a file with a non-zero size.
7. Confirm the download completes and the panel restarts into the runtime project.

Post-Download Sanity Checks on the TP700

• On the panel, navigate to Control Panel > System > About. Verify the firmware version matches the V20 image that was downloaded.
• Open Control Panel > OP > Transfer and confirm the panel is configured to allow download from the engineering PC.
• Verify the project date/time on the panel matches the TIA Portal compile timestamp.

Troubleshooting Matrix

Cross-Version Compatibility Notes

The PIU and the panel images it manages are version-bound. Specifically:

• The panel image installed by the PIU must match the major version of TIA Portal that compiles the project. A V20 panel image cannot be used from a TIA Portal V18 compile, and a V18 image will not satisfy a V20 compile.
• Multiple TIA Portal major versions can coexist on the same engineering PC. The PIU supports parallel image installations in %ProgramData%\Siemens\Automation\HmiPanelImages\; each version is namespaced by major version in its subfolder.
• Downgrading a panel image (for example, installing a V18 image on a V20 system) is not supported by the PIU and results in compile errors at download time.

SIOS Entry Reference

The canonical Siemens documentation for the Panel Image Updater is published under entry ID 109825750 on the Siemens Industry Online Support portal. The entry includes the PIU executable, the release notes, the offline install chapter referenced above, and a list of supported panel families. Always cross-check the entry before downloading, as Siemens occasionally publishes point releases (for example, HMI_PIU_Installer_2.0.1.0.exe) that supersede earlier builds.