ACF Multilingual relies on translation preferences to manage how custom fields appear across different language versions of your site.
While you can choose between two translation options with preset translation preferences, the Expert mode allows you to control how each field appears in secondary languages.
You have four translation preferences to choose from:
Translate
Makes your custom field values available for translation.
Recommended for text fields (e.g. Text, Text Area, WYSIWYG, Message).
Copy
Copies the field value across all languages, keeping it the same everywhere.
Recommended for custom fields that stay the same in every language, like Number, Range, True/False, Image.
Copy Once
Copies the field value to translations just once, allowing you to independently modify the field values in translations afterward.
If you pick this option because you want different field values across languages, you’ll need to manually translate posts with these fields in the WordPress editor.
Don’t translate
The default option for custom fields that you haven’t chosen how to translate yet.
You can select this option for fields you want WPML to ignore. If you want a field to have the same value across languages, switch it to the Copy option.
For your main ACF Repeater and Flexible Content field types, you have two options:
- Select Copy to keep the same layout and number of fields in all languages
- Select Copy Once if you want a different layout or number of fields in other languages
In both cases, you can set translation preferences for your sub-fields based on how you want them to appear in translations.
Understanding How ACFML Translates Custom Fields in Preset Translation Options
The following tables include the preset translation preferences for ACF field types. You need to use the Expert mode to modify these preset options.
Basic Fields
| Type | Same fields across languages | Different fields across languages |
| Text | Translate | Translate |
| Text Area | Translate | Translate |
| Number | Copy | Copy Once |
| Range | Copy | Copy Once |
| Copy | Copy Once | |
| URL | Copy | Copy Once |
| Password | Copy | Copy Once |
Content Fields
| Type | Same fields across languages | Different fields across languages |
| Image | Copy | Copy Once |
| File | Copy | Copy Once |
| Wysiwyg Editor | Translate | Translate |
| oEmbed | Copy | Copy Once |
| Gallery | Copy | Copy Once |
Choice Fields
| Type | Same fields across languages | Different fields across languages |
| Select | Copy | Copy Once |
| Checkbox | Copy | Copy Once |
| Radio Button | Copy | Copy Once |
| Button Group | Copy | Copy Once |
| True / False | Copy | Copy Once |
jQuery Fields
| Type | Same fields across languages | Different fields across languages |
| Google Map | Copy | Copy Once |
| Date Picker | Copy | Copy Once |
| Date Time Picker | Copy | Copy Once |
| Time Picker | Copy | Copy Once |
| Color Picker | Copy | Copy Once |
Layout Fields
| Type | Same fields across languages | Different fields across languages |
| Message | Translate | Translate |
| Accordion | Copy | Copy Once |
| Tab | Copy | Copy Once |
| Group | Copy | Copy Once |
| Repeater | Copy | Copy Once |
| Flexible Content | Copy | Copy Once |
| Clone | Copy | Copy Once |
Relational Fields
| Type | Same fields across languages | Different fields across languages |
| Link | Copy | Copy Once |
| Post Object | Copy | Copy Once |
| Page Link | Copy | Copy Once |
| Relationship | Copy | Copy Once |
| Taxonomy | Copy | Copy Once |
| User | Copy | Copy Once |