Apple Will Release Fix For iOS 6.1 Microsoft Exchange Bug

Apple says it has identified a fix for a bug that causes excess activity on Microsoft Exchange accounts after users accept an exception to a recurring calendar event, and will make it available in an upcoming software update. The bug is troublesome enough that some corporate IT departments have blocked their own devices from their Exchange servers, notes ZDNet.

Of course this isn’t the first fix Apple has had to issue for its latest iOS update. At the beginning of this week, the company released iOS 6.1.1, a bux-fixing update aimed at the iPhone 4S that targeted cellular issues on 3G connections for some European carriers. As Darrell Etherington noted, the update had been in beta for just five days, a much shorter cycle than Apple usually goes through for each new iOS update. This may have been because two European mobile operators-Vodafone UK and 3 Austria-sent subscribers text messages warning them not to update their iPhone 4S to iOS 6.1 because it prompted 3G connection issues.

The lack of urgency shown by Apple with this particular bug fix is annoying enterprise users, who have been finding their own workarounds since Apple won’t let them move back to iOS 6.0.

iOS users who experience the Microsoft Exchange-related bug “may notice increased network activity or reduced battery life in the iOS device. This extra network activity will be shown in the logs on Exchange Server and it may lead to the server blocking the iOS device,” according to Apple’s statement. Apps affected include Microsoft Exchange 2010 SP1 or later and Microsoft Exchange Online (Office365) running on iOS 6.1.

Apple said that before it releases its next software update, users can avoid the bug by not responding to an exception to a recurring event on their iOS devices. If they do, here’s the workaround Apple suggests:

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars
Select the Exchange account from your Accounts list.
Turn the switch for Calendars to OFF.
Wait ten seconds.
Turn the switch for Calendars back to ON.

Source: techcrunch.com