Microsoft recommends blocking iOS 6.1 users due to Exchange Server issue

In a post to its support webpage on Tuesday, Microsoft addressed a mailbox syncing issue some users are seeing with Exchange Server 2010, suggesting that administrators block or throttle devices running iOS 6.1 until the problem is fixed.

According to the online document, the issue arises when Exchange clients attempt to sync a device running Apple's latest iOS 6.1 mobile operating system with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, causing excessive log growth that affects the server's performance. Microsoft notes that it is currently working with Apple to fix the problem.

Users of the latest Office 365 Online Exchange were also affected, and began receiving error messages reading "Cannot Get Mail" and "The connection to the server failed" when attempting to access the service from an iOS 6.1-based device.

As a temporary workaround, Microsoft suggests admins configure Exchange Server to refuse Calendar item updates, remove and recreate the device partnership, and throttle or block iOS 6.1 device users completely.

The apparent bug could prove to be troublesome for Apple as the company makes a push into enterprise, a market where Exchange is a major palyer. Recent reports point to strong growth for Apple's iOS devices in corporate and government initiatives, a sector previously dominated by BlackBerry.

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25 Comments

jragosta

said about 11 years ago

[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/155940/microsoft-recommends-blocking-ios-6-1-users-due-to-exchange-server-issue#post_2276568"]The apparent bug could prove to be troublesome for Apple as the company makes a push into enterprise, a market where Exchange is a major palyer. Recent reports point to strong growth for Apple's iOS devices in corporate and government initiatives, a sector previously dominated by BlackBerry.[/quote] Hmmm. The article states "causing excessive log growth that affects the server's performance." Now, it's hard to imagine how a client bug would cause excessive log growth OR server performance. Clearly, this is an Exchange bug. So it's bad for Apple that Microsoft has a bug in their server hardware. Amazing.

rabbit_coach

said about 11 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by jragosta

Hmmm. The article states "causing excessive log growth that affects the server's performance."

Now, it's hard to imagine how a client bug would cause excessive log growth OR server performance. Clearly, this is an Exchange bug.

So it's bad for Apple that Microsoft has a bug in their server hardware. Amazing.

Right! I think it's really lame of Apple, that they are incapable to fix Mcrosofts bugs.

auxio

said about 11 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by jragosta

It could be a poorly behaved client which keeps reconnecting to the server excessively. Assuming each connection is logged, then that would cause log file growth and potentially make it slower and slower to access the log file.

Then again, MS should have something in place to throttle client accesses on the server side. Otherwise it's susceptible to DoS attacks. (EDIT: Looks like they do, as this is one of the workarounds to the problem).

Anyways all hypotheticals at this point...

nagromme

said about 11 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by jragosta

Now, it's hard to imagine how a client bug would cause excessive log growth OR server performance. Clearly, this is an Exchange bug.

I don't see why it's impossible. The server and client work together. If the client does something repeatedly/endlessly (just as an example), the server might log that, and the constant activity might affect performance.

And this didn't happen in 6.0.

Seems like MS is just truthfully stating a workaround that may be useful. Why should MS conceal this fact that could be invaluable to some Exchange admins?

We would hope that most IT departments would never put their users on any new OS update (like iOS 6.1) soon after release. But many personal iPhones are used, and out of the IT department's control.

gatorguy

said about 11 years ago

I posted this a couple of days ago, courtesy of 9to5:

"AOL’s corporate Enterprise Messaging Operations team has been monitoring a rapidly increasing and unusually large volume of traffic across our enterprise mail environment originating from iOS devices running the new iOS 6.1 update. We have researched this problem and appears to be connected to a recently identified issue that seems to cause these iOS devices to continuously loop while synchronizing a recurring calendar meeting invitation. Similar problems have been reported by a number of sources to several media outlets across the Web in the past few days. While our team continues to work productively and rapidly with Apple and Microsoft to resolve the issue, it has been necessary to temporarily disable the ability to accept or manage calendar meetings using mobile devices to ensure that we maintain the integrity of our corporate enterprise messaging platform. Since this change is limited to managing calendar invitations, by disabling them temporarily we allow our employees to continue to experience the excellent productivity these devices bring to our enterprise until this issue is resolved."