When upgrading your TIA Portal project to V15 why do you get an error and the message indicating that the HMI device is not supported?

Older operator panels are no longer supported in TIA Portal V15.

You want to upgrade your project to TIA Portal V15 but get the following error message during the process:
"The device [XY] is not supported in this version. Change the HMI device type in the source project. Refer to documentation."

Fig. 01

With the TIA Portal V15, in order to optimize the installation time many of the old devices have been removed, which could be configured in previous versions of TIA Portal and in WinCC flexible.
In addition, in TIA Portal V15 it is also no longer possible to configure devices with a firmware (FW) version < 12.0.0.0.The following devices were still supported by TIA Portal Version V14, but have been removed from TIA Portal version V15:

• OP 73
• OP 77A
• OP 77B
• TP 177A
• TP 177A Portrait
• TP 177B 4" PN/DP
• TP 177B 6" mono DP
• TP 177B 6" PN/DP
• OP 177B 6" mono DP
• OP 177B 6" PN/DP
• TP 277 6"
• OP 277 6"
• MP 177 6" Touch
• MP 277 8" Key
• MP 277 8" Touch
• MP 277 10" Key
• MP 277 10" Touch
• MP 377 12" Key
• MP 377 12" Touch
• MP 377 15" Touch
• MP 377 15" Touch Daylight readable
• MP 377 19" Touch

If you attempt to upgrade a project with a device with an old FW version or with an old device, the procedure is aborted with the error message given above.
To upgrade the project you open it with the last used version of TIA Portal and check whether old devices and/or FW versions are in the project.
If old devices are in the project, you have to switch these devices over to a current device (Comfort Panels, Basic Panel 2nd Gen or similar). Instructions for this are available in the manual "SIMATIC STEP 7 Basic/Professional V15 and SIMATIC WinCC V15" (entry id 109755202) in the chapter "Visualizing processes -> Using global functions -> Replacing devices".
If there are no old devices in the project, then a firmware version < 12.0.0.0 is probably set for one of the configured panels. Proceed as follows to check/change the set FW version:

• Open "Devices and Networks".
• Select the device concerned and right-click to open the option "Change device/version".
• In the pop-up window the currently set FW version is on the left. Via the device tree on the right you select the appropriate panel with the latest FW version.
  
  
  Fig. 02
• Change the FW version to the latest version and compile and save the project.

Finally you should be able to upgrade the project to TIA Portal V15.