Tech giant Apple published a support document on Wednesday, acknowledging that a bug in iOS 6.1 shortens the battery life of the iPhone and iPad as it causes compatible devices to tenaciously ping Microsoft Exchange email servers.

Confirming the iOS 6.1 bug, Apple stated in its support document: "When you respond to an exception to a recurring calendar event with a Microsoft Exchange account on a device running iOS 6.1, the device may begin to generate excessive communication with Microsoft Exchange Server." The company also added: "You may notice increased network activity or reduced battery life on the iOS device."

Elaborating the reason behind the iOS 6.1 issue, Apple said that the problem showed up when users of an iOS 6.1-powered device try to connect it with Microsoft Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or a higher SPI version, or even Microsoft Exchange Online, which is part of Office 365 - Microsoft's enterprise-specific cloud-based subscription service.

In its confirmation of the iOS 6.1 bug, Apple said in the support document that it will shortly come up with a fix for the bug in a forthcoming software update. In the meantime, till the update fixing the big is released, the company has offered a stopgap work-around for users who connect to enterprise email.