Microsoft officially offers workarounds for iOS 6.1 Exchange errors including blocking & throttling iOS users

We reported on Friday that AOL had informed its corporate employees via email that it would be temporarily disabling the ability to manage meetings with Exchange on iOS devices running iOS 6.1. AOL confirmed that it was working with Microsoft and Apple to fix the “continuous loop” bug, and many had highlighted the problem on Microsoft’s forums. It doesn’t appear Apple addressed the issue with its recent release of iOS 6.1.1, and Microsoft has now published an official support document to detail workarounds for the bug.

When a user syncs a mailbox by using an iOS 6.1-based device, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Client Access server (CAS) and Mailbox (MBX) server resources are consumed, log growth becomes excessive, memory and CPU use may increase significantly, and server performance is affected. Additionally, Office 365 Exchange Online users receive an error message that resembles the following on an iOS 6.1-based device: Cannot Get Mail, The connection to the server failed.

Microsoft suggested a few workarounds for the issue while it waits for Apple to fix the bug. First, it informed customers to “not process Calendar items such as meeting requests on iOS 6.1 devices. Also, immediately restart the iOS 6.1 device.” If problems with Exchange continue, Microsoft recommended and provided instructions for removing and recreating the device partnership, creating a custom throttling policy for iOS 6.1 users, or blocking iOS 6.1 users entirely.

Microsoft said it is working with Apple to resolve the issue and recommended customers “open an Enterprise Support case with Apple”:

Apple and Microsoft are investigating this issue. We will post more information in this article when the information becomes available. Currently, we recommend that you open an Enterprise Support case with Apple, either through an Enterprise agreement or through a “Cross-Platform Integration and Command-Line Interface” pay-per-incident case to report and diagnose the behavior in iOS 6.1.

The company’s full list of workarounds can be viewed here.