Siemens Tia | Portal V13 Sp1 Update 4 Better 2021

If you are reading this in 2021 (or later), ask yourself these questions:

This is the most critical factor for the year 2021.

Many users didn’t realize that several key features introduced in V13 only became truly usable with Update 4:

| Feature | V13 SP1 (initial) | Update 4 | |---------|-------------------|----------------| | Web server visualization on S7-1200 | Partial | Full, stable with HTTPS | | Trace function for motion control | Occasional data loss | Accurate, predictable | | Multi-user server (SVN-based) | Frequent conflicts | Reliable merging | | WinCC Comfort recipes | Slow download | Optimized transfer | siemens tia portal v13 sp1 update 4 better 2021

In 2021, teams who had endured the early pain of V13 recognized that Update 4 was the first truly industrial-ready version of the V13 generation.


Tagline: A retrospective look at the stability of the V13 generation and whether it holds up against the demands of modern automation.


If you are reading this in 2021, you likely have a plant floor filled with S7-1200 and S7-1500 PLCs commissioned between 2014 and 2017. If you are reading this in 2021 (or

Update 4 for TIA Portal V13 SP1 was primarily a reliability and compatibility maintenance update. Key focus areas included:

These changes were not a major feature release; they were intended to harden the platform and extend its operational life for existing users.

Symptom: Copying a motor block from a global library overwrote instance DBs incorrectly.
Fix in Update 4: Library management logic tightened. Tagline: A retrospective look at the stability of

By 2021, these fixes were well-documented in Siemens support articles, and the user community had validated the stability of Update 4.


TIA Portal V17 requires 16–32 GB RAM and a modern multicore processor. V13 SP1 Update 4 runs smoothly on:

For field service engineers maintaining old machines, this made Update 4 better because it worked on older programming devices.