TIA Portal Crash Report: Submitting Without Default Email Client

Problem Description

The TIA Portal crash handler normally launches a mailto: link through Windows' default mail client. When no MAPI-compliant mail application is registered with the operating system, the handler fails silently or returns the error "There is no email program installed to perform the requested operation." The crash report is generated to disk in those cases, but the user receives no confirmation that the artifact was actually transmitted to Siemens support.

This situation is common in three deployment profiles:

• Engineering workstations locked down by IT where Outlook, Thunderbird, or any POP/IMAP client is intentionally not installed.
• Air-gapped or OT-segmented networks where outbound SMTP traffic to the public internet is blocked at the firewall.
• Portable workstation setups running only portable applications from a USB stick or OneDrive-synced folder, where no mailto: handler is registered with Windows Shell.

The same root cause applies to TIA Portal V13 SP1, V13 SP1 Update 4, V14, V15, V15.1, V16, V17, and V18. The crash handler binary (TIA_Portal_CrashHandler.exe) is shipped with the same code path that calls ShellExecute(NULL, "open", "mailto:...", ...), so the workaround is version-agnostic.

TIA Portal Crash Report Architecture

When TIA Portal (or a child process such as the HMI compiler, the SCL editor, or Scout 4.4.0.6) experiences an unhandled exception, the following sequence runs:

1. Windows Error Reporting (WER) or the Siemens CrashRpt.dll interceptor captures the exception context, the call stack, and the loaded module list.
2. The crash dialog (S7CrashUI.exe or TIA_Portal_CrashHandler.exe) is invoked, which prompts the user with a "Send crash report?" dialog and an optional email composition window.
3. If a default mail client is registered, the handler builds a mailto: URL with the crash dump attached as a Base64-encoded body or as a file link.
4. If mailto: registration is missing, the handler attempts to write the report to the local user's %LOCALAPPDATA%\Siemens\Automation\CrashReports folder and exits with a non-zero return code.

The locally stored report is the authoritative artifact; the email submission step is essentially a transport mechanism. A direct submission by another path (manual SMTP, file transfer to a USB drive, etc.) is functionally equivalent from a Siemens support perspective, as long as the artifact contains the same .dmp, .log, and manifest.xml files.

Affected Versions and Environment

The following TIA Portal versions are confirmed to use the crash handler pattern described in this article. Engineers maintaining older installations can use the same procedures because the handler binary has not changed materially since V13.

The same procedure works for Step 7 V5.x crashes, although Step 7 uses a different submission path through the legacy crashrep.exe utility under Start > Programs > Siemens Automation > Tools.

Locating the TIA Portal Build Number

The build number is required in the email subject line so that Siemens' automated crash-report intake system can route the report to the correct development team. Locate the build number through the TIA Portal Help menu:

1. Open TIA Portal.
2. Click Help > Installed Software.
3. Click the "Detailed information about installed software" hyperlink at the bottom of the dialog.
4. Scroll the resulting report to the "TIA Portal" section and read the version entry. Example values: 1300.200.1001.1 (V13 SP1 Update 4), 1400.2101.302 (V14 Update 7), or 1700.1901.4001 (V17 Update 9).
5. Record the exact string, including dots and trailing digits. Engineers commonly truncate this and route the report to the wrong fix branch.

If TIA Portal will not start, the build number is also readable from the registry. The relevant key is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Siemens\Automation\InstalledSoftware\TIA Portal
  (Default)  =  REG_SZ  TIA Portal V18
  DisplayVersion = REG_SZ 18.0.0.0
  ProductVersion  = REG_SZ 18.0.0.0_18.0.0.0
  VersionMajor = REG_DWORD 0x12 (18)
  VersionMinor = REG_DWORD 0x00 (0)
  VersionBuild = REG_DWORD 0x76d (1901)
  VersionRevision = REG_DWORD 0xfa1 (4001)

The full build string is reconstructed by combining VersionMajor, VersionMinor, VersionBuild, and VersionRevision: 1800.1901.4001.

Manual Crash Report Submission Procedure

When the email dialog does not appear because no MAPI client is registered, the crash dump is still on disk. Submit it manually:

1. Open the local crash report folder: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Siemens\Automation\CrashReports (Windows 7 and later) or %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Siemens\Automation\CrashReports.
2. Identify the most recent subfolder. Each crash creates a folder named with a timestamp, e.g. 2025-01-15_14-22-08.
3. Inside the folder, locate the files: crashdump.dmp (minidump), crashlog.log (event log captured at crash time), and manifest.xml (machine and project metadata).
4. Compress the three files into a single ZIP archive named CrashReport_PortalV18_1800.1901.4001_20250115.zip. Use any standard archiver (7-Zip, WinRAR, or Windows' built-in ZIP support).
5. Attach the ZIP to an email and send it to [email protected].

Subject Line Format Specification

Siemens' automated intake system parses the subject line to route the report to the correct product team. The required format is:

TIA Portal CrashReport - ProductFamily:Portal Vxx - BuildNr:yyyy.mm.dddd.d

Concrete examples:

Subject: TIA Portal CrashReport - ProductFamily:Portal V13 - BuildNr:1300.200.1001.1
Subject: TIA Portal CrashReport - ProductFamily:Portal V14 - BuildNr:1400.2101.302
Subject: TIA Portal CrashReport - ProductFamily:Portal V18 - BuildNr:1800.1901.4001

The two key-value pairs (ProductFamily and BuildNr) must be separated by a single space and a hyphen. Do not add extra text, ticket numbers, or company names to the subject; these cause the parser to flag the report and route it to manual triage, which adds days to the response cycle.

Configuring a Default Email Client

If the workstation allows software installation, the simplest fix is to install a MAPI-compliant client and register it as the default mailto: handler. The Siemens crash handler is satisfied with any client that correctly registers the Windows registry keys under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto\shell\open\command.

1. Install Mozilla Thunderbird (free, no telemetry), Microsoft Outlook (MFC-based MAPI), or eM Client (lightweight, can be made portable).
2. Open the client once so that it registers its MAPI DLL and writes the mailto handler.
3. Verify the registration by opening cmd.exe and running: start mailto:[email protected]. The default mail client should open a new message window. If nothing happens, the handler is not properly registered.
4. Force-rewrite the handler in the registry (last resort). Open regedit as Administrator and set HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto\shell\open\command to "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -compose "%1".
5. Reboot and re-test the crash handler by triggering a known crash (e.g., open a 200MB STEP 7 V5 project directly in V18).

Air-Gapped Network Workarounds

On workstations with no internet connectivity, install a local SMTP relay or move the report off the network manually.

Method 1: Portable Email Client on USB

1. Install Thunderbird Portable (or eM Client Portable) to a USB drive.
2. Launch the portable client. This registers the mailto handler for the current Windows user session only.
3. Trigger the TIA Portal crash. The handler will now find the mailto handler and open a compose window in the portable client.
4. The email will queue locally. Once you move the USB drive to a workstation with internet access, send the queued message.

Method 2: File Transfer to Connected Workstation

1. Locate the crashdump.dmp, crashlog.log, and manifest.xml files as described above.
2. Copy them to a USB drive or to a network share that bridges the OT/IT network boundary.
3. On a workstation with internet access, attach the files to an email and send to [email protected] with the correctly formatted subject line.

Method 3: Local SMTP Relay (Advanced)

For plant environments with a controlled SMTP relay that proxies to Siemens, configure Thunderbird or Outlook to use the relay as the outgoing server. The standard Siemens submission accepts inbound mail from any sender; the relay must be configured to allow TLS to siemens.com MX servers.

Recovering the MRU Project List After a Crash

The "recently used projects" list in the TIA Portal start screen is updated only on graceful shutdown, not on project open. This is a documented behavior in the TIA Portal product description: the MRU list is a transient in-memory structure that is flushed to %APPDATA%\Siemens\Automation\TIA Portal\TIA_PortalMRU.xml only when the application exits cleanly.

After a crash, the XML file is either missing or stale. The recovery procedure is:

1. Launch TIA Portal.
2. Click Project > Open > Browse (or Ctrl+O).
3. Navigate to the project file. By default, TIA Portal stores projects in C:\Users\<user>\Documents\Automation\ or in the user-configured workspace path (Tools > Options > General > Storage locations).
4. Open the .ap<version> project file (e.g., .ap18 for V18). The project loads and adds itself to the in-memory MRU list.
5. Close TIA Portal gracefully. The next launch will show the recovered project at the top of the MRU list.

Verifying Submission and Tracking Response

Siemens' intake system returns an auto-acknowledgement within 15 minutes during European business hours. The acknowledgement is sent to the From: address of the original report and includes a ticket number in the format SR-XXXXXXX (Service Request).

1. Check the inbox (or the queue in the portable client) for an email from [email protected] or a similar automated address.
2. Reply to the acknowledgement with any project-specific context: PLC family (S7-1200, S7-1500, ET 200SP), firmware version of the target device, and a brief description of the operation that triggered the crash.
3. Track the ticket through the Siemens Industry Online Support portal at https://support.industry.siemens.com. Log in with the Siemens Support Account associated with the company's support contract, then navigate to "My Support Requests" to view ticket status.

If no acknowledgement arrives within 4 business hours, the report did not reach the intake system. Common causes are listed in the troubleshooting matrix below.

Troubleshooting Matrix

Related Siemens Procedures and Tools

For the broader crash-handling workflow, refer to the following official Siemens and Microsoft resources:

• Siemens Industry Online Support – main portal for ticket tracking, KB articles, and downloads.
• TIA Portal product page – release notes and update history for all Portal versions.
• Windows Error Reporting reference – Microsoft documentation on the WER service that the Siemens crash handler integrates with.
• Acquiring crash reports and diagnostic logs – general methodology for collecting and transmitting crash artifacts, applicable as a reference pattern for engineering workstations.