Old ACF Fields Still Visible in WPML Translation Editor

This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem:
If you're experiencing an issue where old ACF fields that have been deleted from ACF are still appearing in the WPML Translation Editor, this is likely because the fields were deleted before being emptied, causing WordPress to retain them in the postmeta table.
Solution:
To resolve this, we recommend deleting the residual fields directly from the database. This is not a WPML bug but rather a result of how WordPress handles deleted fields.

If this solution doesn't look relevant to your issue, please open a new support ticket.

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Tagged: Exception

This topic contains 1 reply, has 2 voices.

Last updated by Laura 1 year, 1 month ago.

Assisted by: Laura.

Author	Posts
October 20, 2023 at 4:16 pm #14626015
evgenyM	I'm experiencing an issue with the WPML Translation Editor on my website. I've noticed that some old ACF fields, which have been deleted from ACF, are still appearing in the WPML Translation Editor. Specifically, fields with the name view_all_title (and possibly others) are still visible, even though they no longer exist in ACF. I've attached screenshots for your reference: One screenshot shows the WPML Translation Editor where the old ACF fields are still visible. Another screenshot shows the current ACF settings where these fields are not present. To troubleshoot this issue, I've tried the following: Cleared the cache (as I'm using a kinsta caching ). Resaved the permalinks settings. Checked WPML's custom fields translation settings. However, none of these steps resolved the issue. I'm concerned that these residual fields might cause confusion for our translators and potentially lead to other issues. Could you please advise on why these deleted ACF fields are still appearing in the WPML Translation Editor and how I can permanently remove them? Is this a known issue, or might there be a specific setting or step I'm missing?
October 23, 2023 at 11:00 am #14637201
Laura Supporter Languages: English (English ) Italian (Italiano ) Timezone: Europe/Rome (GMT+01:00)	Hi, thanks for contacting us. This happens because the fields were deleted before being emptied, so WordPress still has them in the postmeta table, and WPML, as a consequence, shows them. It's not really a WPML bug but it's due to how WordPress works. The solution should be to delete them directly from the database.