Resolving TIA Portal V13 Save As and Archive Project Errors

TIA Portal V13 projects targeting SIMATIC HMI panels such as the TP1500 Comfort can fail both Project > Save as and Project > Archive operations with two distinct error codes: 0x0025:000012 ("Project not found") and 0x0025:000085 ("The project cannot be archived"). Both faults share a common project-file-access root cause: the TIA Portal V13 file system layer cannot resolve the underlying .ap13 master file, its accompanying log, or its temporary unpack path before the operation commits. This article documents the verified field procedure for recovering the project, removing the fault conditions, and upgrading to a supported V13 service pack so the project can be migrated to a current TIA Portal version.

The official Siemens support portal at support.industry.siemens.com remains the canonical source for TIA Portal V13 service packs, ALM versions, and TP1500 Comfort firmware images referenced throughout this procedure.

1. Background: TIA Portal V13 Project File Architecture

To diagnose the error conditions, the engineer must understand the on-disk structure of a TIA Portal V13 project. Unlike the legacy STEP 7 V5.x project model, the TIA Portal stores all device configuration, program code, HMI screens, and cross-device connections in a single project container with a fixed subfolder layout:

The Save as operation performs an in-place rename and copy of the root .ap13 file plus the full subfolder tree to the new destination. The Archive operation additionally creates a temporary unpack directory in %TEMP%, copies the project tree into it, then compresses the directory into a single .zap13 file (which is a standard ZIP archive containing the .ap13 and all subfolders). Both operations walk every subfolder and validate structural consistency; failure at any subfolder aborts the operation with a generic error code from the V13 file system layer.

2. Problem Description and Symptom Matrix

The TP1500 Comfort configuration is built in TIA Portal V13. After editing, the engineer attempts either to rename the project (Save as) or to compress the project for transfer (Archive). The TIA Portal UI raises a modal error dialog with a composite error code and a short message. The two most common error pairs observed in field reports are:

3. Root Cause Analysis

Six environmental and project-level conditions have been observed to trigger the 0x0025:000012 and 0x0025:000085 errors against TP1500 Comfort projects in TIA Portal V13.

3.1 Outdated TIA Portal V13 Service Pack

The original V13 release (without service pack) shipped in 2014. V13 SP1 followed in 2015, and V13 SP2 in 2015/2016. The V13 line received incremental maintenance through V13 SP2 Update 4, which is the last public maintenance release for the V13 branch and the only V13 service pack recommended for projects that will be migrated to V14 or later. Several file-handling regressions in the original V13 and V13 SP1 release were corrected in V13 SP2, including archive path resolution and the Project-Save-as master-file rename logic. Running a pre-SP2 V13 installation on Windows 7 or Windows 10 is the single most common root cause of both error codes.

The original V13 release supported only Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit). V13 SP1 added Windows 8.1 support. V13 SP2 is the first V13 service pack with documented Windows 10 compatibility, although the vendor classified Windows 10 support for V13 as "best effort" until V13 SP2 Update 4. Many TP1500 Comfort projects that were developed in 2014-2015 on Windows 7 have been migrated to Windows 10 workstations without a corresponding V13 service pack upgrade, which is why the error pattern is observed predominantly on Windows 10 deployments today.

3.2 Project Path Contains Special or Localized Characters

TIA Portal V13 was not fully Unicode-clean. Folder names or file names containing the following characters reliably break the Save-as and Archive dialogs:

• Spaces (especially trailing or multiple consecutive)
• Localized diacritics (umlauts, accents, cedillas, Asian double-byte characters)
• Punctuation: # & % & { } [ ] ! @ $ ^ * + = | \ ` ~
• Long paths exceeding 240 characters (Windows MAX_PATH minus project filename)

Fault reproduction is reliable when any of the above appear in the path of the working directory selected in the Save-as dialog or the destination chosen in the Archive dialog. The project may still be opened from a non-conforming path, but the new write target is rejected by the file system layer, which is why 0x0025:000012 ("Project not found") appears even though the project is loaded.

3.3 Inconsistent Project Database (IM Folder Corruption)

Every TIA Portal project contains a hidden IM (Interface Management) subfolder that stores the device interconnection database, network view topology, and cross-device proxy objects. When the IM folder is partially synchronized with the rest of the project database - typically after a forced shutdown, a crash during compile, or a Windows Update reboot while the project was open - the file-system layer detects a structural mismatch when attempting a Save-as or Archive transaction. The error surfaces as 0x0025:000085 on Archive because the archive writer walks the IM folder first.

3.4 Windows Regional and Language Settings

TIA Portal V13 expects decimal separators and date formats consistent with the locale of the original project creation. When the workstation regional settings are changed after the project is created - or when a project created in a German locale is opened on an English-locale workstation without converting locale - internal string comparisons in the Save-as and Archive dialogs fail. The error manifests as 0x0025:000012 because the file-name tokenizer cannot parse the locale-formatted string into a valid file path.

3.5 Insufficient File-System Permissions

The Archive operation writes a temporary copy of the project to %TEMP%\<projectname>_archive before compressing it. If the user profile does not have write/modify rights to %TEMP%, or if the project is on a network share without change rights, the archive writer aborts with 0x0025:000085. Likewise, the Save-as target directory must grant the engineering user create, modify, and delete rights for the project folder, the .ap13 master file, and the System and IM subfolders.

3.6 Antivirus or Backup Software Locking Project Files

Real-time antivirus scanners and corporate backup agents (for example Windows Defender real-time, McAfee, Symantec, or Veeam endpoint agents) can hold an open file handle on the .ap13 file or its log companion, causing the TIA Portal V13 file-system layer to fail when it tries to obtain an exclusive lock for the rename or archive. The error is reported as 0x0025:000085 with a generic message because the underlying CreateFile/ReadFile/WriteFile API returns an NTSTATUS that the V13 error translator does not specifically handle.

4. Affected Versions and Compatibility

The TP1500 Comfort (order numbers 6AV2 124-1MC01-0AX0 and later revisions 6AV2 124-1MC02-0AX0 and 6AV2 124-1MC03-0AX0) is fully supported in TIA Portal V13 through V18. The HMI image version determines the WinCC Runtime version that loads onto the panel. Common TP1500 Comfort image versions include V13.0.1.0 (V13 era), V14.0.0.0 (V14 era), and V15.1.0.0 or later (V15.1 and later). The image version is independent of the TIA Portal version that created the project, but the project must be opened in a TIA Portal version that supports the image, or a project upgrade is required. The image version is configured in the device properties under Runtime settings > Image version.

5. Prerequisites

• Local administrator rights on the engineering workstation (required to install TIA Portal updates and to clear file locks).
• Siemens Automation License Manager (ALM) version 5.5 or later installed; the V13 SP2 Update 4 setup verifies the ALM version before continuing. ALM is available from the Siemens Industry Online Support portal at support.industry.siemens.com.
• A free disk volume with at least 10 GB of contiguous free space for the unpacked project plus the V13 SP2 installation files. The archive is approximately 40-60% of the unpacked project size.
• The current TIA Portal V13 project, with a verified recent compile against the TP1500 Comfort target (TIA Portal > Project tree > Compile > Software (rebuild all)).
• A path on the local NTFS volume (not a network share) for the new project location, for example C:\Automation\<project_name>. The path must contain only ASCII characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and underscore.
• A blank, NTFS-formatted USB drive or local folder for the archive target if the network share is suspected of interference.

6. Step-by-Step Recovery Procedure

Execute the following steps in order. Each step ends with a verification check; do not proceed if the verification fails.

Step 1 - Update TIA Portal to V13 SP2 Update 4

1. Close TIA Portal and stop the Siemens TIA Portal V13 service if it is running (services.msc > right-click > Stop).
2. Download the V13 SP2 Update 4 package from the Siemens Industry Online Support portal. The package is provided as a multi-DVD image; mount or extract it to a local folder.
3. Run Start.exe with administrator rights and follow the upgrade prompts. The installer recognizes the existing V13 installation and applies the service pack in place.
4. Reboot the workstation. Verify the installed version: TIA Portal > Help > About > the splash should display TIA Portal V13 SP2 Update 4.

Step 2 - Prepare a Clean Project Path

1. Create a new folder on the local C: volume, for example C:\Automation\TP1500_Project. Use only ASCII characters; do not use spaces, umlauts, or punctuation.
2. In Windows Explorer, right-click the new folder and confirm that the engineering user has Full Control on the Security tab.
3. Right-click the folder > Properties > General > confirm the file system is NTFS (not FAT32, exFAT, or ReFS; TIA Portal V13 does not support ReFS).
4. Right-click the source project folder > Properties > uncheck Read-only on the General tab (this clears the read-only flag that Windows sometimes propagates from copies).

Step 3 - Relocate the Project and Validate

1. Close the project in TIA Portal V13.
2. Copy the entire project folder - including the IM, System, Logs, and UserFiles subfolders - to the new location using Windows Explorer. Do not use Move; use Copy to keep the original as a fallback.
3. Open the copied project from the new path. Verify that the device view shows the TP1500 Comfort with the correct firmware version (for example, V13.0.1.0 or V14.0.0.0 depending on the image).
4. Run a full compile: Project tree > TP1500 Comfort > right-click > Compile > Software (rebuild all). The compile must complete with 0 errors and 0 warnings before proceeding.
5. Attempt Project > Save as and choose a new name within the same clean path. If the error persists, continue to Step 4.

Step 4 - Delete the IM Folder and Re-synchronize the Network View

1. Close the project in TIA Portal.
2. Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the project root and delete the IM subfolder entirely. This is a hidden folder; enable View > Hidden items in Windows Explorer if it is not visible.
3. Reopen the project. TIA Portal V13 will detect the missing IM folder and rebuild the device interconnection database on first compile.
4. Open the Network view. Re-add the TP1500 Comfort device if it has been removed, and re-bind any PLC-HMI tag connections manually (drag-and-drop, or use the Cross-references tool accessible from Project tree > Common data > Cross-references).
5. Run Project tree > Compile > Software (rebuild all) again. Confirm 0 errors.
6. Attempt Project > Archive. If the archive completes, proceed to Step 5 to validate the archive.

Step 5 - Alternative: Reconstruct the Project in a New Shell

If the IM folder rebuild still produces 0x0025:000085, the project database is too far out of synchronization. Use this last-resort procedure:

1. Create a brand-new TIA Portal V13 project (Project > New) with a clean ASCII-only name and path.
2. Add a new TP1500 Comfort device in the new project. Configure the same HMI image version and the same panel type as the source project.
3. Open both the source and the new project side-by-side. From the source project, copy the screens (right-click > Copy on each screen in the project tree) and paste them into the new project's HMI screens folder.
4. Copy the HMI tags table, alarms, recipes, and scripts from the source project to the new project using drag-and-drop in the project tree.
5. If the project includes a PLC (S7-300, S7-400, S7-1200, or S7-1500), copy the device configuration from the source project's network view to the new project's network view, and re-establish the HMI-PLC tag connections.
6. Compile the new project. The new project should archive cleanly. Use the new project as the working master going forward.

7. Verification Procedure

After each remediation step, run the following verification sequence. All checks must pass before declaring the issue resolved.

8. Recovery Workflow Diagram

The decision flow below summarizes the recovery procedure and the verification branches that lead to either immediate success, escalation to IM folder rebuild, or full project reconstruction.

9. Long-Term Path Forward: Migration to TIA Portal V14 or Later

V13 reached end of life in 2017. Migrating HMI projects targeting the TP1500 Comfort panel to a currently supported TIA Portal version is the recommended long-term remediation. The supported migration path is:

1. Confirm the project is clean and archivable in V13 SP2 Update 4 (this article's verification steps V1-V6).
2. Install the target TIA Portal version (V15.1, V16, V17, or V18) on a Windows 10 or Windows 11 workstation, in parallel with V13 if required. TIA Portal allows side-by-side installation of major versions on the same workstation.
3. Open the V13 SP2 .ap13 project in the target TIA Portal. The portal prompts for a project upgrade; confirm. The upgrade is non-destructive; the original .ap13 is preserved and a new .apXX file is created in the same folder.
4. Re-compile the upgraded project against the TP1500 Comfort device. Address any device-firmware compatibility warnings (for example, the TP1500 Comfort image may need to be updated to a V14.0.x or V15.x image to match the target TIA Portal version).
5. Download the upgraded project to the TP1500 Comfort panel and validate HMI runtime behavior against the V13 baseline.

The TIA Portal Migration Tool, available through support.industry.siemens.com, performs a pre-migration validation of project structure. It flags IM folder inconsistencies, missing device firmware images, and unsupported HMI options before the engineer commits to a full upgrade, and is the recommended first step when migrating from V13 to V15.1 or later.

10. Preventive Best Practices

• Always run the latest service pack of the TIA Portal major version. For V13, this is V13 SP2 Update 4. For V15.1, this is V15.1 Update 9 or later.
• Use only ASCII characters and underscore in project names and folder paths. Avoid spaces, umlauts, and punctuation. The legacy file system layer in V13 does not handle Unicode normalization forms NFC vs NFD consistently, and macOS-created filenames (which use NFD) can corrupt the path even on Windows.
• Store TIA Portal projects on local NTFS volumes. Do not store live projects on OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, or any cloud-sync folder, as the sync agent can corrupt the project file. Do not store on a network share that uses opportunistic file locking (oplocks) without disabling the oplocks on the share.
• Set Windows regional settings to English (United States) or German (Germany) before creating the project, and keep them consistent for the life of the project. The regional setting must match the locale of the project origin; switching locales mid-project can corrupt the IM folder.
• Exclude the TIA Portal project folder from real-time antivirus scanning. In Windows Defender Security Center > Virus & threat protection > Exclusions, add the project root folder.
• Archive the project weekly to a separate physical drive. Verify the archive by extracting it on a different workstation at least once per quarter.
• Configure the engineering workstation with a controlled shutdown policy to prevent forced reboots while the project is open. Use a UPS if the workstation is on a manufacturing floor with unstable power.
• Back up the project to a version-controlled system (SVN, Git LFS, or a PLM solution) before applying any V13 service pack or TIA Portal major-version upgrade.

11. Troubleshooting Matrix