By Polar Systems

18-September-2017

Apple announced that they will be releasing iOS 11 on Tuesday, September 19th. Apple iOS 11 will bring some pretty cool new features including, phone-to-phone Apple pay, a smarter Siri and a redesigned, customizable control center.  However, the new release does not come without issues. Customers running Windows Server 2016 will have issues with Exchange ActiveSync. Exchange ActiveSync users will not be able to REPLY to, or FORWARD, message with attachments from default Mail app on iOS 11. This will only affect customers running Windows Server 2016, if you are running an older version of Windows, you will not be affected.

Why is Windows Server 2016 being affected?
Apple is now using HTTP/2 because Windows Server 2016 supports it. The cause of the issue is directly related to either iOS 11 using HTTP/2 or Windows server using HTTP/2. HTTP/2 is a major revision of the HTTP network protocol used for communication across the internet. Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 both default to HTTP/2 versus legacy HTTP/1.1.

Is there a workaround?
Yes, you can essentially modify Windows Server 2016 to act as an older version of Windows server, telling iOS 11 to use the HTTP/1.1 protocol vs. HTTP/2. This involves a server reboot and should only be done by a system administrator.

If you are unsure of which version of Windows you are currently running, it may be a good idea to hold off on downloading iOS 11, until you talk to you system administrator to avoid any unnecessary issues.

We are here to help! If you have questions around this new release, please let us know, 503-775-4410