SIEMENS How does Siemens obtain a program backup from a physical PLC?

In this article, we will show how to take a program backup from the physical PLC to your computer using the Siemens Tia portal software.

Contents:

• Why would You need to take a backup?
• How to take a backup from PLC?
• Notes about Backup from PLC
• Conclusion

Why would You need to take a Backup?

Imagine if you accidentally deleted your software from the PC while working on it. Or maybe you need to make an update to certain process software that has been running for 10 years and you no longer have the software code.

 Instead of rewriting the whole code from scratch, it will be easier to just upload the current code and make your changes to it.

In this article, we will show how to easily upload the software contained inside the PLC to your PC.

How to Take a Backup from PLC?

TIA Portal with the new Siemens controllers S7-1200 and S7-1500 provides more advantages when taking a backup compared to them when you are working with older controllers like S7-300 or S7-400, with older controllers you would take the backup but it will not show any comments or addressing details, the software will work just fine but it will be difficult to read or understand.

With the newer PLC controllers, you can now upload both the code and all associated addressing and comments, which will make reading the code very simple and make any updates to it possible.

Steps to upload the software from the PLC

Create a new project, but unlike what we do usually we will not add a new device rather we will press the Online and choose “upload device as a new station”. See picture 1.

Picture 1 – Upload the device as a new station.

This will take you to upload the device into the PG/PC window. See picture 2.

Picture 2 – Upload device window.

You need to choose the type of PG/PC interface as shown in the last picture and then press Start search. 

When the search is done, you will see all the devices that were found by your software. Note that, it’s not necessary to only find PLCs; you will also be able to find HMIs, IO modules, and every other communication module that the software can detect. See picture 3.

Picture 3 – Scan complete and devices found.

After the scan is complete, you can select the PLC that you need to upload and then press Upload.  This will start uploading the software from the PLC to your TIA Portal. See picture 4.

Picture 4 – Upload from PLC is complete.

As you can see from the previous picture, the complete project saved on the PLC will be uploaded into your TIA Portal. Even with all the comments and addresses. See picture 5.

Picture 5 – PLC project is uploaded

As you can see, the whole PLC project was uploaded from the PLC to your PC. With all the blocks, comments, and project configurations.

Notes about Backup from PLC

If your PC and the PLC have different IP addresses, the TIA Portal will ask you to assign a new IP for your PC that matches the addressing of the PLC and it will even do that automatically, if you allow it.

If the project on the PLC is password protected, you will be asked to write this password before the upload step starts, if you can’t provide the right password, then the upload will not start. Make sure you know that password if any.

Sometimes,  the TIA Portal will find your PLC, but can’t upload the project, due to different reasons, for example, the project on the PLC is written in a different TIA Portal version than what you are using right now. Either way, the reason for failed upload will be shown to you, and you can upload once these reasons are cleared.

Conclusion

• You can upload the project on the PLC to your PC using TIA Portal.
• If the PLC is s7-1200 or s7-1500 the project will be uploaded with all the associated addressing and comments.
• If there is any reason preventing TIA Portal from uploading the project, this reason will be shown to you by TIA Portal and you can upload once you fix the problem.