The current issue is as follows:
When ACF field groups used in an options page are set to “translatable” in WPML, saving content in the default language removes the content in all other languages.
This affects, for example, link, text, and editor fields (and maybe also other fields).
A concrete example:
If the default language of the website is German, with additional languages like Italian and English, and we update a value (e.g., a link field) in German, then upon saving, the existing content in Italian and English is deleted.
Our assumption is that since the field groups are handled separately per language in the background (including unique field keys), the mapping between fields no longer matches correctly, which leads to values being removed from the database.
This issue does not only affect a single page but around 70 pages on our site where field groups are set as translatable. For newer pages, we are already following best practices and no longer set field groups as translatable. However, updating all existing pages accordingly would require a significant amount of manual work, especially for the options pages, as content would need to be re-entered completely.
Additionally, I have already prepared a staging site with a minimal setup where the issue is reproducible. I would be happy to provide you with access so you can test it directly and, if needed, pass it on to your second-tier support team.
We also noticed that everything works as expected with version 2.1.5. As a temporary workaround, we have downgraded to this version on the affected sites.
Hello,
My name is Carlos, and I will continue working on this ticket
1.- The behavior you are describing is consistent with the expected ACF behavior given the configuration. I understand that the goal of your ticket is to find a workaround to keep the translated values in the ACF after changing the ACF group configuration to non-translatable.
Please confirm if the above assumption is correct.
2.- Thank you very much for creating the staging site. I have set your next message private so you can securely share the access credentials to this site.
3.- Also, it would be very helpful if you could create a screencast describing the steps to reproduce the issue in a particular URL that we can use as a reference. This way, the margin of error will be pretty much none, because we will be following exactly the same steps as you described.
I have reproduced the issue in the staging site and escalated this ticket to our 2nd-tier of support, where our specialists will take a deeper look at the issue and isolate its cause.
Please don't modify the staging site or the credentials until this issue is solved.
I will get back to you as soon as I get more information.
Thank you very much for your patience and understanding!
Hi, as mentioned earlier, we’re unfortunately not able to set the ACF field groups to “non-translatable.” Doing so would require us to recreate and maintain the entire content of the options page separately for each language, which would mean a significant amount of additional work and ongoing maintenance.
