Earlier this afternoon we harangued Microsoft about the recent Calendar app update for Windows Phone 8.1 that occurred on Monday, June 30. The update virtually broke the app for thousands of users by crashing whenever one adds a new appointment. Soon after our article, the app was unpublished from the Store preventing users who rely on auto-app updates from suffering the same fate.
Tonight, Microsoft's Joe Belfiore took to Twitter to address the situation, noting that a fix would be available very soon.
"WP8.1 Calendar fix is ready and getting posted to the store. Will take a bit of time to show up everywhere. Sorry for the inconvenience!" – Joe Belfiore, Microsoft
Apologies aside we knew Microsoft would quickly address the bungled update though it still raises questions about how such an obvious bug made it through certification. People may brush this off by claiming Windows Phone 8.1 is currently in beta (it is not) or we knew what we were getting into when we signed up for Preview for Developers, but the truth is official 8.1 devices have been on the market for weeks e.g. the Lumia 630. For the sake of the platform's success, such incidents simply cannot happen if Microsoft expects to make any inroads in the competitive mobile space. They need to execute flawlessly.
For now, if you're on Windows Phone 8.1, you can head to the Store to get version 1.0.14127.247 of Calendar.
Update - For the record, this is not a new version, but rather the old one prior to the June 30 update. While it's a 'quick fix' for the add appointment bug, it also brings back a region specific bug affecting those in Russia. We surmise that Microsoft will attempt once again to update Calendar in the coming days with bug fixes, making it a true update. Thanks, @Alovchin91, for the heads up.
- Download Calendar for Windows Phone 8.1 Note: Since this update is so new, you may not see it in your region right away. If that is the case, please try again later once the update has propagated to all of Microsoft's Store servers.
