Microsoft and Apple recommend that businesses deny certain iPhones, iPads and iPods access to Calendar items until the companies can clear up a problem that slows Exchange servers to a crawl when the devices try to sync.

The problem reveals itself to end users as an error message when they try to update items with Exchange Server 2010 that says “Cannot Get Mail” and “The connection to the server failed,” according to a Microsoft support notification. The only option presented to users is to choose “OK,” Microsoft says.

More problematic for IT is that server CPU use jumps, affecting performance for all users. Microsoft describes the problem like this: “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.”

IOS 6.1 comes on iPhone 3GS, 4 and 5; fourth and fifth generation iPod Touch; iPad 2, third generation and fourth generation iPads; and iPad Mini. This makes for a major inconvenience for workers who use these devices at work primarily as a way to access emails and calendaring information.

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