I upgraded from TIA Portal V17 to V20 (STEP 7 and WinCC Comfort V20). The program compiles successfully, but when attempting to download, I receive a "missing panel images" error. I have followed troubleshooting steps from the Siemens manual without success.

Current situation:

• HMI device configured in project: TP700 Comfort (V17)
• Panel image currently on physical HMI: V16
• Downloaded V17 image files available on PC
• ProSave cannot establish connection to the HMI
• TIA Portal project: V20

What I've tried:

• Following Siemens documentation for OS updates
• Verifying network connectivity (ping successful to HMI IP address)
• Setting HMI to Transfer mode
• Attempting ProSave connection (hangs on "Connecting to host...")

Questions:

1. Is it even possible to download a V20 project to an HMI with V16 panel images, or must the panel image be updated first?
2. How can I update the panel image from V16 to V17/V20 when ProSave won't connect?
3. Can TIA Portal V20 automatically update the operating system during download, or must I use ProSave first?
4. Are there alternative methods to update the HMI operating system without ProSave?

Hello trent_miller172

1) Is it even possible to download a V20 project to an HMI with V16 panel images, or must the panel image be updated first?

In TIA V20, device version V16 cannot be selected for Comfort Panels; only versions 14.0.1.0 and 17.0.0.0 are selectable.

I recommend selecting version 17 for the TP700 in TIA V20.  Then it is necessary to perform an OS update to image V17 on the panel.

2) How can I update the panel image from V16 to V17/V20 when ProSave won't connect?

Alternatively to ProSave (or TIA Portal), there is the option to perform an OS update via memory card.

https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/us/en/view/109740696

3) Can TIA Portal V20 automatically update the operating system during download, or must I use ProSave first?

If you want to perform the OS update from within the TIA Portal V20 environment, the panel images must first be installed in the corresponding folder structure (TIA V20). 
Then TIA V20 is able to find the images and perform an OS update.

For TIA V20, the images can be installed via the PIU (Panel Image Update).

https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/us/en/view/109825750

There is also an offline option described under point 1.2.
(However, this requires that TIA V16 or TIA V17 is also installed.)

4) Are there alternative methods to update the HMI operating system without ProSave?

See the answer to 2)

When there are problems installing the images in TIA V20,
you can try transferring image V17 Upd8 to the Comfort Panel from a PC where TIA V17 is installed. 

If the image V17 Upd8 is present on the panel, then the project can be downloaded from TIA V20 without having to perform an OS update beforehand.

Best regards, Costanza