TIA Portal V21 upload blocked by missing GSDML files - colleague won't share, need workaround before EOD
Hey r/PLC,
Bit of a nightmare situation here. I need to upload a program from a remote S7-1515F-2 PN before the weekend or my manager will have my head.
The engineer who originally commissioned this system took his laptop home on Wednesday and has been completely unreachable since — not picking up calls, not responding to messages. All the project files and GSDML files for the third-party devices were only on his machine. I don't have the original project file and no physical access to the site, only remote IP connectivity to the PLC.
I managed to get an online connection by creating a new project and adding the CPU manually — took a bit of trial and error to find a hardware/firmware combination that doesn't throw a "Not compatible" error. Once online, I tried to upload via right-click → "Upload from device (software)" but the Upload button in the preview dialog stays greyed out no matter what I do.
The upload preview shows a warning about missing GSDML files for some third-party PROFINET devices connected to the system. I set the action dropdown to "Attempt to upload from device", everything turns green and says "Ready for loading" but the button is still greyed out.
Has anyone run into this before? Is there any way to force the upload without having the GSDML files installed? Any help appreciated, desperate at this point.