iPhone and the Meeting Request Bug

We're seeing complaints that Outlook automatically sends meeting updates to the attendees several times a day. When users delete the responses from their inbox it triggers another update to attendees.

The good news: it’s not user error.
The bad news: it appears to be a problem only for people who sync iPhones with Exchange.

The bug appears when the user creates an appointment in Outlook and includes themselves as an attendee, often because they are the members of a distribution group or a delegate.

Scenario

The repro steps are as follows:

1. The iPhone user creates a new appointment in Outlook and uses a distribution group as an attendee; the meeting organizer (iPhone user) is also part of the distribution group.
2. The Meeting organizer sends the appointment from Outlook.
3. An attendee accepts the appointment request.
4. The organizer receives the response from the attendee and deletes it from their inbox.
5. A meeting request update is sent out to all attendee’s of the meeting.
6. This repeats itself and continues to send out meeting updates.

Workaround

Until Microsoft or Apple releases a fix, use this solution discovered by Derik and Mark:

When creating a new appointment in Outlook, do not include yourself as an attendee. If you are using a distribution group to invite others, expand that group and remove yourself as an attendee.