Microsoft Offers Workarounds for iOS 6.1 Exchange Bug

[MacRumors]

iOS 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.

Article Link: Microsoft Offers Workarounds for iOS 6.1 Exchange Bug

[Dwalls90]

Didn't exchange work fine on iOS 5? If wasn't broken, why did iOS 6 seem to break exchange?

[Speedy2]

It just works.

Yeah..it used to

[a.gomez]

Originally Posted by Speedy2

It just works.

Yeah..it used to

Welcome to the iOS years.

[iekozz]

Originally Posted by Dwalls90

Didn't exchange work fine on iOS 5? If wasn't broken, why did iOS 6 seem to break exchange?

iOS 6.1 has a bug that causes some devices to constantly check with the exchange server to see if there's anything new. That leads to a battery drain for the iphone.

Before iOS 6.1:

iOS: anything new? -> server: yeah here it is -> iOS oke, check back later

After iOS 6.1: (some devices)

Hey, hey hey, new things yet? hey,hey,hey. And that 24/7

[QuarterSwede]

Originally Posted by Dwalls90

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.

[Berserker-UK]

This is just one more reason to be grateful I made the decision to stay on 5.1.1 for both my iPad2 and 4S - it just works!

Both 6.0 and 6.1 have had serious Exchange bugs. Given the efforts it took to get iPhones accepted in some enterprises, Apple is really doing no-one any favors here.

[Northgrove]

Originally Posted by Speedy2

It just works.

Yeah..it used to

When? MobileMe -- it just worked? Or do you mean way back perhaps... Copland? The Longhorn of Apple.

Better take of your glasses of nostalgy.

[drwatz0n]

Originally Posted by QuarterSwede

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.

[mudman2]

Originally Posted by Northgrove

When? MobileMe -- it just worked? Or do you mean way back perhaps... Copland? The Longhorn of Apple.

Better take of your glasses of nostalgy.

So how do you get this "bug", my fleet of iPhones all running 6.1.1 on the enterprise does not have the problem

Oh wait, we don't allow Microsoft to hotfix our servers, just saying !

[ouimetnick]

Originally Posted by drwatz0n

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

[Stella]

Originally Posted by QuarterSwede

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.

That is what "regression testing" is for.

[aristotle]

Originally Posted by mudman2

So how do you get this "bug", my fleet of iPhones all running 6.1.1 on the enterprise does not have the problem

Oh wait, we don't allow Microsoft to hotfix our servers, just saying !

Right, so the "bug" might have been introduced by a change in behaviour of exchange from a "hotfix" released by MSFT.

Originally Posted by Stella

That is what "regression testing" is for.

Right and MSFT apparently did not regression test either since some installations of Exchange are not affected whereas others are. The blame for this might be shared by coding errors by both MSFT and Apple.

[mentholiptus]

Originally Posted by a.gomez

Welcome to the iOS years.

Welcome to a spoiled generation that can't wait to complain over every minor inconvenience. How dare some of the most amazing tools ever created, in our pockets, that let us access all the information, entertainment, and people in the world instantaneously...have an intermittent problem that effects one feature out of thousands for a few days/weeks every so often. Unacceptable, right?

[commander.data]

Can anyone confirm this impacts Google Sync as well with impact to battery life? If so then I'll avoid updating to iOS 6.1. I don't use Exchange with my company email, but I do use Exchange ActiveSync with my Google accounts.

[Renzatic]

Originally Posted by mentholiptus

Unacceptable, right?

It's more an issue with the My Stuff Is Better Than Your Stuff internet generation. Where every issue the other guy's Stuff has is blown way out of proportion, and used as a reason why My Stuff Is Better.

Windows has viruses? WELL APPLE HAD ANTENNAGATE AND THAT ISSUE WITH SNOW LEOPARD DELETING ALL YOUR FILES! Nuh uh! That barely affected anyone, and only Windows fanboys talked about it. ALSO VISTA SUCKED OLOL! EVERYONE HATED IT! Yeah? Well...APPLE MAPS SUCKS AND IT KILLS PEOPLE!

...and on and on and on and on.

[Fatalbert]

Originally Posted by ouimetnick

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

10.7 seems to run faster than 10.6 for me, and I'm using 10.6 primarily since Apple decided to drop two very important parts of Mac OS: Rosetta and Save As.

----------

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.

[drwatz0n]

Originally Posted by Fatalbert

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.

Why would this bug be Microsoft's fault? It's the same version of Exchange, Apple just messed something up during the upgrade to 6.1. Putting the blame on Microsoft doesn't make much sense. Sure, Exchange may have its own inherent problems, but I'm willing to bet the source of this particular issue lies on the side of Apple's platform (the one that changed), as opposed to Exchange.

[Exhale]

Originally Posted by commander.data

Can anyone confirm this impacts Google Sync as well with impact to battery life? If so then I'll avoid updating to iOS 6.1. I don't use Exchange with my company email, but I do use Exchange ActiveSync with my Google accounts.

It should not, Google users should not be receiving the type of calendar event causing this problem.

Worst case is to just disable calendar sync.

[commander.data]

Originally Posted by Exhale

It should not, Google users should not be receiving the type of calendar event causing this problem.

Worst case is to just disable calendar sync.

Okay. Thanks.

[Amazing Iceman]

A 'Workaround' means a different solution to make it work in the meantime.
Microsoft's workaround basically is: "Don't use it" or "cripple it".

Don't get too critic about Apple on this. It could happen. Still, Apple should test their updates in a more realistic scenario, even if that means trading some of their 'secrecy'.

Microsoft recently deployed an update to Windows SBS that caused all the additional CALs to be deleted from the OS, causing all kinds of server/internet access problems to users, and costing them money to troubleshoot and fix.

[coolfactor]

Originally Posted by Northgrove

When? MobileMe -- it just worked? Or do you mean way back perhaps... Copland? The Longhorn of Apple.

Better take of your glasses of nostalgy.

I've used iTools/.Mac/MobileMe/iCloud for over 12 years and never lost a single contact, bookmark or email message. Sure, there have been problems, but they never affected me, so yes... for me, it has just worked, and it's been beautiful.

[Amazing Iceman]

Originally Posted by Fatalbert

10.7 seems to run faster than 10.6 for me, and I'm using 10.6 primarily since Apple decided to drop two very important parts of Mac OS: Rosetta and Save As.

----------

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.

Rosetta is old news. It was time to get rid of it and move on due to several key changes in OS X.
I know, it's kind of an inconvenience. The workaround is to run Snow Leopard inside a Parallels VM (that is, if you have enough resources for it), or find alternative software that would replace your legacy PowerPC apps.


"Save As" is still there (in 10.8); I did notice some users had some trouble finding it.
Try clicking on the File menu and then hold the OPTION key; "Save As" should appear. It's much cleaner this way, less clutter in the menu.
It's nothing when compared to how Microsoft changed the Menus in Office for Windows and made it so confusing to most users.

[coolfactor]

Originally Posted by ouimetnick

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

Bear in mind that a large contributing factor to slowness with today's computers is that they are heavy network users... checking emails, multiple "live" websites open, data syncing with the cloud, off-site backups... just to name a few... network connections are slow!

[Fatalbert]

Originally Posted by Amazing Iceman

Rosetta is old news. It was time to get rid of it and move on due to several key changes in OS X.
I know, it's kind of an inconvenience. The workaround is to run Snow Leopard inside a Parallels VM (that is, if you have enough resources for it), or find alternative software that would replace your legacy PowerPC apps.


"Save As" is still there (in 10.8); I did notice some users had some trouble finding it.
Try clicking on the File menu and then hold the OPTION key; "Save As" should appear. It's much cleaner this way, less clutter in the menu.
It's nothing when compared to how Microsoft changed the Menus in Office for Windows and made it so confusing to most users.

You can't do shift++s to do it. Rosetta is old, but I simply can't get rid of it and move on because some of my apps REQUIRE it. Was it really such a problem for Apple to keep it?