TIPs - WinCC Unified – “Invalid Password” - Workarounds

Hi,

In my activities at Technical Support, I receive some recurring inquiries about cases in which the operator “can no longer log in” to an HMI (in this case Unified). I would like to share some tips in this regard:

Tips:

Scenario 1: First commissioning. In this case it is possible that you have forgotten to download the usernames and passwords. In this case, during the download, in the “Load Preview” window, expand the “Runtime values” target and uncheck the “Keep current user administration data in runtime” option.

Scenario 2: The system has been running for some time without problems and “inexplicably” the login of a specific user stops working. In this case, it is likely that the user has been locked out after incorrectly entering his password more than a certain number of consecutive times. As a default security condition, if a user enters his password incorrectly more than a certain number of times, he is blocked. If none of the alternatives below is taken before this fact happens, it is necessary to download the users and passwords again, as described in scenario 1.

Preventions / workarounds:

1 - As of version V18 update1, it is possible to change the number of unsuccessful attempts before blocking the user and even deactivate this functionality as a whole. These settings are available under “Runtime settings”, “Security”, “Account deactivation in Runtime”. Once these settings was changed, it is necessary to download the project to the HMI.

2 – Create a second user (with Administrator rights) and use this user to, at runtime, delete the deactivated user and create a new one (e.g., with the same characteristics), for current use.

I describe below the steps for the Runtime version:

I let attached some prints for general orientation.