If your copy of TIA Portal Step 7 came with USB Memory Stick Floating License, you’ll need to move that license to your hard drive before you’ll be able to use Step 7.

If you don’t, even with the USB stick installed you’ll get the following error when trying to open an existing project, or add a device to a new one:

To move your license from the USB memory stick to your hard drive, just follow these steps:

Step 01) Start by plugging your USB Memory Stick License into your computer. Then open the “Automation License Manager” application that is installed with TIA Portal:

Step 02) Next, select the USB Memory Stick License drive from the list (in this case my USB License is drive “E”.) Next choose the license on the the right, and then choose “Transfer” under the “License Key” menu :

Step 03) In the pop-up hat appears, choose the hard drive you’d like to transfer the license to (in this example my hard drive is “C”.) Then click on OK:

Step 05) Now select the hard drive you just moved the license too, and you should find that your license now resides there:

With the above steps done, you should be able to open or create a Step 7 project without getting a license error:

While the above procedure worked for me, I’m still new to Siemens. So if you have any insight or comments to share, I invite you to do so by clicking on the “post a comment” link below.

Until next time, Peace ✌️ 

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Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator

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Shawn Tierney
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8 COMMENTS

  1. Saudações Engenheiro.
    Estou com problema no tia portal, a primeira vez que instalei não ativei a licença. E após expirar já não consigo nem ativar. Por outra não tenho nenhuma licença, o tia portal baixei de forma grátis.

    O que devia fazer para voltar ao normal?

  2. Finalmente sono riuscito ad attivare la licenza del software TIA Portal, seguendo esattamente il vostro esempio. Quando ho creato il nuovo progetto, non ho utilizzato la directory di default, che, nel mio caso, comprendeva OneDrive. Ho creato, invece, il nuovo progetto in “C:\mioplc”, dopo aver creato la cartella “mioplc”. Tutto ha funzionato benissimo. Grazie Mille.

    In precedenza avevo avuto il problema che citate nell’articolo; probabilmente era dovuto al fatto che creavo il progetto in una sottocartella di OneDrive e avevo installato la chiave di licenza in C:

    Andrea Paolini

  3. It’s interesting that the Automation License Manager help files state that you can store the license on USB, but does not seem to make explicit that you cannot use (i.e. authenticate and run the software with) the license on USB.