14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Redmond-based software giant Microsoft has made available for download a new flavor of the Calendar application for Windows Phone 8.1 handsets, supposedly in an attempt to improve the overall experience that users receive from it.
It turns out, however, that the update actually broke something inside the application and that users have seen it failing badly ever since installing it.
Apparently, the Calendar app no longer allows Windows Phone 8.1 users to create new appointments or to edit existing ones.
Each time one tries to perform such an action, the software crashes and the user is sent to the Start Screen.
Multiple users have already reported similar issues, all of them confirming that the bug has been indeed introduced along with the latest flavor of the mobile client.
Apparently, Microsoft is already aware of the situation and has acknowledged it officially on Twitter, while also saying that an update will be provided to resolve the problem.
@ShawnWildermuth Sorry for the troubles that may have caused. We are aware of that and we are working on it.
— WindowsPhoneSupport (@WinPhoneSupport) July 1, 2014
The issue is said to affect all devices that are running under Windows Phone 8.1, regardless of whether they are based on Developer Preview or not.
A recent article on Neowin claims that the application showed the same behavior on Nokia Lumia 630 devices, which is supposedly running a more stable flavor of the platform, when compared to those upgraded to the Developer Preview OS variant.
According to them, the application crashes every time the user tries to manage appointments and even when simply trying to open such Calendar entries.
There’s no telling how long Microsoft will need to resolve the problem, but it appears that a workaround is already available, though only for those who have Cortana on their devices.
Using the digital personal assistant, owners of Windows Phone 8.1 devices can create, edit, open, or delete appointments in Calendar without issue. In fact, all of the features supported by the Calendar app are accessible via Cortana and are fully functional.
With Cortana released only for users in the United States, we can imagine that there will still be some people out there experiencing said issues with the Calendar app.
By changing their location settings to the US and their language to English, they will be able to get Cortana up and running on their smartphones too, thus being able to access the Calendar app without problems.
Most probably, Microsoft will try to resolve the issue as fast as possible, so stay tuned to learn more on the matter.
Update: The Calendar app has received a new update, and the crash bug has been fixed.