SAP Fiori launchpad troubleshooting: tiles, roles and catalogs

Why Fiori tiles disappear, apps return 403, or the launchpad loads empty — and a repeatable order of checks from role assignment to OData activation.

"My tile is gone" is the single most common SAP support ticket after a transport. The launchpad is a chain of six dependencies, and a break anywhere shows up as the same symptom, so work the chain in order instead of guessing.

The dependency chain

Business role assigned to the user (PFCG role containing the catalog and group).
Catalog containing the tile and target mapping.
Target mapping resolving semantic object + action to the app.
App implementation — SAPUI5 app on the front-end server, or a Web Dynpro/GUI transaction.
OData service activated in /IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE with the right system alias.
Back-end authorisations for the objects the service reads.

A repeatable diagnosis

Start with the user, not the app. Run /n/UI2/FLP as the user (or use the launchpad's own "Show technical information" on the tile) and note the semantic object and action. Then:

Empty launchpad → no catalog/group reaches the user. Check PFCG role assignment and run /UI2/INVALIDATE_GLOBAL_CACHES; stale caches cause phantom outages after transports.
Tile visible, app 404 → target mapping points at a UI5 component that is not deployed on this front-end server. Check /UI5/UI5_REPOSITORY_LOAD and the BSP application.
Tile visible, app 403 → back-end authorisation. Run ST01 or STAUTHTRACE on the back end while reproducing.
Tile shows no KPI number → the dynamic tile's OData service is failing; test it directly in the gateway client (/IWFND/GW_CLIENT).
500 from the gateway → check /IWFND/ERROR_LOG on the front end and /IWBEP/ERROR_LOG on the back end. They usually name the exact exception.

Cache invalidation is half the battle

" Front-end server
/UI2/INVALIDATE_GLOBAL_CACHES
/UI2/INVALIDATE_CLIENT_CACHES
" Then hard-refresh the browser (Ctrl+Shift+R) and clear the
" personalisation with the URL parameter:
https://host/sap/bc/ui2/flp?sap-ushell-config=standalone&sap-client=100

Prevention

Version-control your catalogs and roles; never edit business catalogs directly in production.
Keep a smoke-test user per business role and run through their tiles after every transport.
Use the Fiori Apps Reference Library to confirm the exact OData services and roles an app needs before you deploy it.
Monitor gateway error logs proactively — most launchpad incidents were visible in the log hours before a user called.