TIA Portal V15.1 Crash Report: Project Recovery Guide

1. Overview

A TIA Portal V15.1 project that compiled and saved cleanly the previous day can fail to open the next morning with a hard crash and the automatic generation of a binary .dr file such as b9ba7574-fa79-4eb2-81bb-b9e636c36398.dr. The crash is not a code logic problem in the PLC or HMI program — it is a workspace, library, catalog, or installation issue inside the TIA Portal host process. Recovery is almost always possible without re-engineering the project if the engineer follows a structured diagnostic and reset procedure.

This reference consolidates the official Siemens diagnostic-data configuration documented in the Overview of the settings for diagnostics and feedback entry of the TIA Portal help, the known file-system layout used by TIA V15.1, and field-proven recovery steps. Use it when TIA Portal V15.1 throws a Windows Error Reporting (WER) dialog, silently restarts, or generates a .dr file in the user profile when you attempt to open a previously working .ap15.1 project.

2. Anatomy of a TIA Portal V15.1 Crash Report (.dr)

The .dr file is the Siemens-internal Diagnostic Report produced by the TIA Portal host (S7TIA.exe or the matching process for HMI/PLCSim). It is a structured ZIP-style bundle that mirrors the layout used by extended diagnostic data in newer releases.

The GUID in the file name (b9ba7574-fa79-4eb2-81bb-b9e636c36398 in the case described) is referenced inside crashinfo.xml and matches the WER report that Windows writes to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive. Cross-referencing both reports is the fastest way to identify the faulting module.

Default TIA Portal crash report storage paths on V15.1:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Siemens\Automation\Portal\V15.1\CrashReports\
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Siemens\Automation\Portal\CrashReports\
%PROGRAMDATA%\Siemens\Automation\Portal\V15.1\Log\
%APPDATA%\Siemens\Automation\Portal\V15.1\Workspace\.cache\

3. TIA V15.1 Project Storage and Version Matrix

TIA V15.1 stores each opened project in a private working folder under %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Automation\Workspace\V15.1\. The on-disk layout uses an SQL Server Compact primary file plus a set of binary blobs.

4. Top Root Causes for TIA V15.1 Project Open Failures

5. Configuring Extended Diagnostic Data in TIA Portal

Before you start the recovery workflow, enable the diagnostic data collection that Siemens uses to triage .dr files. The setting persists per user, so repeat on every engineering account.

1. Start TIA Portal V15.1 with the affected user account.
2. Open Options → Settings.
3. Navigate to General → Diagnostics.
4. Tick "Extended diagnostic data". This is the same setting described in the Overview of the settings for diagnostics and feedback page; on V15.1 the dialog title is "Diagnostics" but the behaviour is identical.
5. Optionally, enter an SMTP server and the local "send to" address so the next crash auto-emails the .dr to your IT helpdesk.
6. Click OK and close TIA Portal to commit the registry key HKCU\Software\Siemens\Automation\Portal\V15.1\Diagnostics\ExtendedData = 1.

6. Pre-Recovery Checklist

Perform these checks before touching any file. They eliminate 80 % of reported V15.1 startup crashes in field data.

• Confirm Windows has no pending reboot: Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RebootRequired' must return nothing.
• Confirm at least 2 GB free on the drive that hosts %LOCALAPPDATA%\Siemens and %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Automation.
• Stop the TIA Portal background service: net stop "Siemens TIA Portal V15.1 Server" and net stop "S7TraceServiceV15.1".
• Disable antivirus real-time scan for the recovery steps; re-enable after success.
• Copy the project folder, all crash .dr files, and the WER report archive to a safe location. Make a backup of the backup.
• Verify the TIA Portal V15.1 build: Help → About → Installed software. If it is not the latest 15.1.6 (or your site-standard), install the matching TIA Updater package before continuing.

7. Step-by-Step Project Recovery Procedure

1. Do not delete the original project folder. Move it to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Automation\Workspace\V15.1\QUARANTINE_<timestamp>\ and keep it for at least 30 days.
2. Open TIA Portal V15.1 in a new, empty workspace: Project → New project → "Recovery_<date>" and save it. This forces TIA to re-initialise %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Automation\Workspace\V15.1\.cache.
3. Close TIA Portal.
4. Copy the original .ap15.1 archive back into the new workspace folder.
5. Right-click → Open with → TIA Portal V15.1. Watch the splash screen — if it survives the "Loading global libraries" step you are likely past the cache-triggered crash.
6. If a WER dialog appears, click Close the program, open the new .dr in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Siemens\Automation\Portal\CrashReports, and jump to the matching root cause in Section 4.
7. On successful open, run Project → Compile → Software (all) and Project → Archive immediately. The .ap15.1 produced is your golden backup.

8. Workspace, Cache, and Temporary File Reset

If the project still fails to open, the next step is a controlled reset of all transient TIA state. Run each command from an elevated PowerShell session.

# 1. Stop TIA background services
Stop-Service -Name "Siemens TIA Portal V15.1 Server" -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Stop-Service -Name "S7TraceServiceV15.1"       -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

# 2. Capture pre-reset state (do not delete yet)
$stamp = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMdd_HHmmss"
$dst   = "C:\TIA_Reset_$stamp"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $dst | Out-Null
Copy-Item -Recurse "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Siemens\Automation\Portal\V15.1" "$dst\UserProfile" -Force
Copy-Item -Recurse "$env:APPDATA\Siemens\Automation\Portal\V15.1"       "$dst\Roaming"       -Force

# 3. Wipe the volatile caches only (keep HSPs and licences)
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Siemens\Automation\Portal\V15.1\WorkspaceCache"
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:APPDATA\Siemens\Automation\Portal\V15.1\Workspace\.cache"
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:APPDATA\Siemens\Automation\Portal\V15.1\Workspace\.metadata"
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:TEMP\Siemens*" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

# 4. Re-start TIA Portal and try the recovery project

9. Library and Hardware Catalog Reconstruction

When the .dr shows a fault inside Siemens.Simatic.Engineering.Hwcn.dll or Siemens.Simatic.Engineering.Library.dll, the project was last saved with a library or HSP that is no longer installed.

1. Open the latest working backup of the same project in TIA V15.1 (not the failing one). Project → Libraries → Library overview. Export the master copy: Global libraries → Export to .al15.1.
2. Note the HSP version in Options → Support Packages on the PC that last successfully opened the project. Install the matching HSP from the original Siemens HSP download (e.g. HSP 0027 V15.1 for the S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP).
3. Restart TIA Portal V15.1.
4. Re-import the library via Libraries → Open global library → <name>.al15.1. Mark it "master" if you want the next crash to fall back to the read-only copy.
5. Open the failing project. TIA will now match the cached library against the installed HSP and should no longer fault on Hwcn.dll.

10. Backup Archive Restoration (.ap15.1)

Always prefer restoring a known-good .ap15.1 archive over repairing a corrupted working file. The Siemens-proven sequence is:

1. Move the current project folder out of %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Automation\Workspace\V15.1 as described in Section 7 step 1.
2. Create a new empty folder %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Automation\Workspace\V15.1\Restore.
3. Copy the chosen .ap15.1 archive into Restore.
4. Right-click → Open with → TIA Portal V15.1. TIA extracts the archive to a sub-folder and re-hydrates the SQL-CE project database.
5. When the project opens, run Project → Archive immediately. This re-creates a clean .ap15.1 free of the previous corruption.

If you do not have a valid .ap15.1 from within the last 24 hours, look in the following standard Siemens recovery points:

11. Verification and Commissioning Tests

Recovery is not complete until you have proven the project still builds and communicates with the target hardware. Run this 8-point checklist before you consider the incident closed.

1. Compile clean: Project → Compile → Software (all) must show 0 errors and 0 warnings. Any "non-fatal" warning masks a deeper inconsistency that may crash on a later save.
2. Cross-reference: Project tree → PLC → Program blocks → right-click → Cross-references must be empty. Stale cross-references point to deleted tags still referenced by HMI screens.
3. Hardware detection: Online → Accessible nodes must find the real PLC or PLCSim instance within 5 s.
4. Download dry-run: Online → Download to device with "Check consistency before download" enabled.
5. HMI compile: HMI device → Compile → Software (rebuild all). A passing HMI compile confirms that the device configuration graph is intact.
6. Library hash: Compare the SHA-256 of the re-opened .ap15.1 with the SHA-256 of a known-good archive. A 1-byte delta is enough to trigger a future crash.
7. Diagnostic data: Confirm Options → Settings → General → Diagnostics → Extended diagnostic data is still enabled (Section 5).
8. Archive: Run Project → Archive → Project archive (complete) and store the new .ap15.1 in your standard backup location with a date-coded filename.

12. Escalating to Siemens GTAC

If the project still fails after Sections 5–10, escalate to the Siemens Industry Online Support Global Technical Assistance Center. The data you already have is exactly what they need.

1. Open a Support Request at support.industry.siemens.com. Use category "Automation → TIA Portal → Engineering SW → Crash on project open".
2. Attach the .dr file (e.g. b9ba7574-fa79-4eb2-81bb-b9e636c36398.dr), the WER archive from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive, and the matching s7tia.log from the path in Section 2.
3. Quote the TIA build (Help → About), the Windows build (winver), the CPU model of the engineering PC, and the active HSPs.
4. Quote the project size: number of PLCs, HMI devices, global libraries, and the file size of the failing .ap15.1.
5. Note the Support Request number (SRxxxxxxxx) in your incident log. Siemens response time is typically 2 business days for reproducible crashes.

13. Preventive Hardening for TIA V15.1

After recovery, lock down the engineering workstation to prevent recurrence.

• Pin the TIA build. Deploy the same V15.1 Update level (e.g. 15.1.6.4000) to every PC that opens the project. Use TIA Multiuser or a controlled distribution share so version drift is impossible.
• Move the workspace off OneDrive / Dropbox. Redirect %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Automation to a local SSD with a daily VSS snapshot.
• Whitelist TIA in Defender. Add %ProgramFiles%\Siemens\Automation\Portal V15.1\Bin\S7TIA.exe and the entire ...\Workspace tree to a Defender Controlled Folder Access exception.
• Schedule auto-archive. Enable Project → Archive → Schedule to a dedicated backup share so a recoverable .ap15.1 is always < 24 h old.
• Block parallel TIA sessions. A second TIA Portal instance pointing at the same workspace is the single largest cause of SQL-CE corruption in V15.1. Make opening two sessions on one account impossible via UI restrictions.
• Cap the .dr file growth. The folder in Section 2 can grow above 10 GB over months. Add a scheduled task that prunes .dr files older than 30 days while keeping at least the last 5.

14. Frequently Asked Questions