Microsoft Offers Workarounds for iOS 6.1 Exchange Bug

iphone_5_black_whiteiOS 6.1, which was released two weeks ago, brought with it a handful of serious bugs. The first bug, which affected 3G performance on the iPhone 4S was fixed yesterday, following Apple's release of 6.1.1 for the iPhone 4S.

The second bug involved an error that caused iOS devices running 6.1 to continuously loop when synchronizing a recurring calendar meeting invitation on Microsoft Exchange. This error, which causes excessive memory consumption, was not fixed with yesterday's 6.1.1 update.

As noted by 9to5Mac Microsoft has published an official support document offering workarounds for the error.

Microsoft offers up several fixes, including the recommendation not to process Calendar items like meeting requests on iOS 6.1 devices. The company also recommends immediately restarting the devices and renewing the device partnership to halt the continuous looping access.

Devices using iOS 6.1 should be blocked or throttled, says Microsoft, in order to reduce the effect on server resources.

While none of these options are true fixes, Microsoft mentions that it is working with Apple to investigate the issue and suggests customers open an Enterprise Support case with Apple, via Enterprise agreement or a pay-per-incident case report.

Top Rated Comments

Speedy2 Avatar
145 months ago
It just works.

Yeah..it used to :rolleyes:
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
drwatz0n Avatar
145 months ago
I don't think you realize how intricate and complex an OS is. Updating other parts can break things that used to work but are unrelated.

It's called quality control and software testing.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ouimetnick Avatar
145 months ago
It's called quality control and software testing.

something that is rarely done at Apple these days.

OSX 10.7 and 10.8 are horrible. Slow buggy resource hogs. Stop adding iOS features, and start fixing the OS
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iSunrise Avatar
145 months ago
[/COLOR]I'm suspicious that any problems involving Exchange are at least partially Microsoft's fault. I've had to deal with Exchange servers, and they SUCK. Plus, they somehow managed to fragment their own system. There are different versions of Exchange.
They removed IMAP for global mailboxes/folders, which isn´t needed anymore. If you care about that, you´re still running Exchange 2003, which isn´t affected by this iOS bug at all. And yes, there are different version of Exchange, like with any other software.

If you had to deal with iOS devices and Exchange 2007/2010 daily in a big company (2000-5000 people), your view would be a lot different. I promise.

The problems with a complex IT infrastructure (BYOD is making everything even more annoying and hard to manage) is always attributed to people who don´t have the necessary knowledge or time to run or support it. Today, one major factor that adds to that is complexity.

I´ve worked with several companies as an IT Systems Engineer (e.x. Exchange Messaging environment) and I have rarely seen such big problems like with Apple iOS devices in the whole IT (communication) infrastructure. There obviously is a problem with Apple, who doesn´t seem to communicate their releases and/or just doesn´t test them throughfully, because they just don´t care about MS or other products. They want their services to work first and at the very end of the list, there´s "other" products. At least it seems that way.

Normally you would throughfully test a new release like 6.1, especially if it´s mainly a bugfix release. If there´s barely any new features it should under no circumstances break anything that has worked before.

However, with almost any release since iOS 5.0 there were some Exchange related problems, which I personally have verified through intensive testing and working very close with MS, giving feedback to MS as well as Apple. These bugs weren´t there because of installed Exchange hotfixes, Exchange SPs or configuring problems with Exchange. They simply appeared after you connected an iOS device with an users mailbox, used the calendar on the iOS device and approved or declined a meeting request (and that´s only one problem) that was send e.x. with Office on another client to Exchange. We´ve always had to tell everyone not to process calendar items such as meeting requests on iOS devices since iOS 5.0, to be safe.

Also, there was some annoying bug, where whole meetings got deleted as a whole, which was very concerning. All this was fixed when 5.1.1 was released. 5.1.1 was an extremely good release, it just worked.

Now the part were it gets interesting:
"Real" Macs like Macbooks or Macbook Pros weren´t affected at all. Every single problem was an iOS problem and it could be reproduced, some needed a couple of dozen steps to reproduce them, because iOS seems to work very differently than MacOS, when it comes to their mail code.

Another thing, while you made it sound like MS is at fault here:
Of course there are different versions of Exchange, but if you´re a company you don´t care at all, because you shouldn´t mix Exchange versions forever, while being in a live production environment. You only do that while you´re in the migration phase (which can last very long in big companies) and then you have to mix, otherwise you cannot migrate. This is not MS related at all, that´s just the way it´s being done in IT, because you cannot migrate everything in one single step if the company is too big.

I´ve rarely seen such a good working and supported product as Exchange is. Especially if you take into account how extremely complex a messaging infrastructure is, with various hardware and OSes communicating with it. People just like to blame Microsoft for everything, because of their huge market share in the past (and with Exchange, they still are big). MS was everywhere. MS was an easy target.

Yes, MS also does a lot of things that just seem stupid or are annoying from a single user perspective, but if we´re only talking about software, software will always come with bugs, it´s just a matter of how important they are or how they affect the big picture. Some bugs are there, but they will never be found, because they just don´t matter.

Apple needs to stop that madness that is constant Exchange iOS bugs, while MacOS works perfectly fine.

PS: It´s like Apple´s iOS WLAN problems that are there since 6.0. I have had like a couple dozens of 5.1.1 devices with the same professional WLAN capable devices like firewalls, access points or routers that just worked perfectly. After I´ve upgraded to 6.0, there were reception problems, constant lockups of the iOS WLAN (needed to restart or reset the device, sometimes even a full restore) or the device just didn´t find the WLAN at all. At home, when I enable to hide my SSID, 5.1.1 finds my WLAN, 6.0 just doesn´t care. So I needed to disable that option in my router, just because Apple wants it that way.

I just don´t get why Apple makes constant changes to their WLAN code and breaks things, I just don´t get it. Looks like a job opportunity.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
QuarterSwede Avatar
145 months ago
Didn't exchange work fine on iOS 5? If wasn't broken, why did iOS 6 seem to break exchange?
I don't think you realize how intricate and complex an OS is. Updating other parts can break things that used to work but are unrelated.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
a.gomez Avatar
145 months ago
It just works.

Yeah..it used to :rolleyes:

Welcome to the iOS years.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 16 Camera Lozenge 2 Perspective Gray

Five Key Upgrades Coming to iPhone 16

Friday March 15, 2024 1:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone is Apple's top-selling product, and it gets an update every year. In 2024, we're expecting the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro lineup, with an arguably more interesting feature set than we got with the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Capture Button All four iPhone 16 models are set to get a whole new button, which will be...
When To Expect New iPads Feature 1

Apple to Announce New iPads on March 26, Rumors Claim

Monday March 18, 2024 4:02 am PDT by
Apple is widely expected to release new iPad Air and OLED iPad Pro models in the next few weeks. According to new rumors coming out of Asia, the company will announce its new iPads on Tuesday, March 26. Chinese leaker Instant Digital on Weibo this morning 日发布%23">claimed that the date will see some sort of announcement from Apple related to new iPads, but stopped short of calling it an...
airpods 3 orange

Two New AirPods 4 Models Expected to Launch in September or October

Sunday March 17, 2024 7:56 am PDT by
Apple suppliers will begin production of two new fourth-generation AirPods models in May, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Based on this production timeframe, he expects the headphones to be released in September or October. Gurman expects both fourth-generation AirPods models to feature a new design with better fit, improved sound quality, and an updated charging case with a USB-C...
iphone se 4 modified flag edges

iPhone SE 4 Expected to Depreciate Heavily

Tuesday March 12, 2024 9:04 am PDT by
Resale value trends suggest the iPhone SE 4 may not hold its value as well as Apple's flagship models, according to SellCell. According to the report, Apple's iPhone SE models have historically depreciated much more rapidly than the company's more premium offerings. The third-generation iPhone SE, which launched in March 2022, experienced a significant drop in resale value, losing 42.6%...
General iOS 17 Feature Orange Purple

iOS 17.4.1 Update for iPhone is Imminent

Monday March 18, 2024 5:27 am PDT by
iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 should be released within the next few days, with a build number of 21E235, according to a source with a proven track record. MacRumors previously reported that Apple was internally testing iOS 17.4.1. As a minor update for the iPhone, it will likely address software bugs and/or security vulnerabilities. It is unclear if the update will include any other changes. ...
M3 iPad Feature 3

New iPads Likely to Begin Shipping in April

Monday March 18, 2024 9:52 am PDT by
Apple's new iPad Pro models with OLED displays will likely begin shipping to customers in April, according to information shared today by Ross Young, CEO of display industry research firm Display Supply Chain Consultants. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman also said the new iPad Pro models might not ship until "deeper" into April in his Power On newsletter on Sunday:I've repeatedly said that new...
iOS 17 Passkey With Apple ACCOUNT Feature

'Apple ID' Expected to Change to 'Apple Account' Starting With iOS 18

Sunday March 17, 2024 7:13 am PDT by
MacRumors was first to report that Apple was planning to rebrand "Apple ID" to "Apple Account" across its software platforms and websites like iCloud.com as early as this year, and now Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has corroborated this change. A mockup of the new Apple Account branding In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said the new "Apple Account" branding will start to be used later this...