Devices running iOS 6 are cancelling calendar appointments sent to distribution lists

Seems like the open-source active-sync server implementation z-push has found the cause and work around for this issue. Apple should hire some more active-sync experts.....

http://www.zarafa.com/blog/post/2012/10/ios6-meeting-hijacking-fixed-open-source -activesync-implementation-z-push

z-paulb

Thanks for the link, paulbateau! Great technical explanation of the issue.

Microsoft came out with KB October 20.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2768774

Microsoft is aware of an increase in issues for meeting requests that coincided with the release of Apple iOS 6 devices. When this occurs, users that are attendees of a meeting may inadvertently become the meeting organizer.

The organizer information in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Web App (OWA) is not changed in this scenario. If an attendee takes action on a meeting item using an Apple iOS 6 device, synchronizing with Microsoft Exchange Server using Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), the meeting organizer may be changed and replaced by the attendee.

As a secondary result, the device may incorrectly assume that the device user (attendee) is the organizer, and can send meeting updates or cancellations to all of the original meeting attendees, as if the mailbox user is the organizer.

This issue is currently under active investigation by Microsoft and Apple. At this time, Microsoft cannot mitigate this issue and we recommend contacting Apple for updates.

Apple....Please get a fix soon. This affects mostly VPs, CEO's....etc.

Seems like a fix for this and other glitches on the way.....fingers crossed.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2BBdTC/www.webpronews.com/ios-6-0-1-update-coming- soon-fixes-annoying-glitch-2012-10

http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/10/22/apple-reportedly-testing-ios-601-with- keyboard-camera-flash-wi-fi-fixes

Further issues said to be resolved with the software update ..... and an issue in which Exchange meetings could be unexpectedly canceled for an entire group of invitees.

Our environment is similar to yours only with 3500+/- users. We only had one instance of this issue which I believe we have found a work around for. Waiting for Apple to come up with a fix was not an option. On the affected user I

• Removed the delegate that they had set on their mailbox.
• Removed all internal folder permissions that had been granted to the delegate.
• Granted Full Access rights to the mailbox for the previously designated delegate so they would not lose previous functionality.

We are into day two of making the above adjustments and so far everything seems to be working.

>Removed the delegate that they had set on their mailbox.

Well, I've seen the problem in iOS5.x... and I do not have an delegation of any type on my mailbox. (haven't moved to iOS6 yet)

However, another user in the invite chain did have delegation.. the one that forwarded the external invite to me.

So one does not have to be a delegate to see the problem, just receive an invite (or maybe just a forwarded invite) from another person with delegation (but not delegated to the recepient)

this will not help the office 365 people, but I did this about a week and a half ago and have not had any issues with the user that we had cancelling meetings since we made the change. i apologize about the delay in getting back to the group:

Exchange 2007 - Get-MailboxCalendarSettings mailbox_name | FL automateprocessing

This checks to see if they are set to none which my user was. I then ran this command:

Set-MailboxCalendarSettings mailbox_name -AutomateProcessing:AutoUpdate

and no issues since. I now see they have a KB for this on the MSExchange Team Blog. See these links. I believe someone already linked a couple of them:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/10/23/ios6-devices-erroneously- take-ownership-of-meetings.aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2768774

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309185

I recommend checking the user/device that sent out cancellations and making sure it's not configured to sync Corporate Email/Calendar/Contacts with iCloud. I've noticed this pattern/connection in instances where this issue has occured.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1606

About iOS 6.0.1 Software Update

This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:

Great news to hear:

Fixes a bug affecting Exchange meetings

However, none of the Apple support items has any more specifics than that one statement. What exactly did they fix? There must be more detail.

Looking forward to when some people here can test the fix and report back...

http://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/tony-redmonds-exchange-unwashed-50/exchange-ser ver/apple-fixes-exchange-meeting-bug-144712

http://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/tony-redmonds-exchange-unwashed-50/exchange-ser ver/microsoft-apple-activesync-clients-144613

I'll note another Organizer Hijack and delete under iOS5.1 / Lion environmnet...

Lion Apple Mail and iCal 10.7.4. iPhone 4 running iOS 5.1

Accepted on iCal... got second (not same, but new) invite to same event...

deleted old on iCal...

accepted new on Ical.

Old one was deleted as My event (asking if I wanted to send cancellation notice to attendees)

Didn't use iPhone to touch calendar /event... although if it's syncing in the background, does that cause the problem in itself? or can this be caused by Apple Mail / iCal touching an invite?

I'll note the sender (a webinar) appears to have sent out separate invites to individual persons with organizer... so they protected themselves from a hijack cancellation affecting Everyone on the event.

May try the 6.0.1 update and see what happens.

The 6.0.1 fix has not solved the problem.

Have seen organizer hijack and delete on

1) iOS6.0.1 on iPhone 4 and Lion

2) iOS6.0.1 on iPhone 5 and Windows 7 (also iPad)

In case 2, someone just looked at the event on their iPhone5 (without touching/accepting/etc..) and saw it appear, then disappear (it self deleted), which deleted the source invite. No delegates from this account.

in case 1, looking at event on iCal... Organizer and Invitee... after Accept, converted Invitee to Organizer (and removed original Organizer). Another time it just deleted itself. No delegates.

In either case... handling event in Outlook (2010 or 2011) without opening in iPhone or iPad, appeared to not cause problem. But even viewing in iOS device could cause a problem. (maybe when syncing, not sure).

I'll also note... at least for the Mac users... if the problem in iOS is the Mail or Calendar apps... doesn't Lion or Mountain Lion basically use the same Mail/Calender app? Wouldn't there have to be a fix to the OS also, in addition to any iOS devices? Or why would it be that iDevice sync causes problems, and OS X device sync does not also cause problem?