Home›Support›English Support›[Escalated to WPML Developers team] ACFML timeout issue on pattern/post update
[Escalated to WPML Developers team] ACFML timeout issue on pattern/post update
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Elementor users - please update WPML to the latest version to maintain compatibility. More details here - https://wpml.org/changelog/2024/12/wpml-4-6-15-critical-update-for-elementor-sites/
Background of the issue:
I am trying to address an ACFML timeout issue on pattern/post update. Please check my demo here: hidden link. The problem is related to the after_copy_custom_field function. When we add a return to bypass it, everything works as expected. After the demo, I upgraded ACFML to the latest version v2.1.4.2, but the problem persists. ACF support mentioned that ACFML is a third-party plugin and recommended reaching out to ACFML support.
Symptoms:
The issue impacts performance and persists even after upgrading to the latest version of ACFML. The problem is related to the after_copy_custom_field function.
Questions:
How can we resolve the ACFML timeout issue related to the after_copy_custom_field function?
Why does the problem persist even after upgrading to the latest version of ACFML?
As per your shared video, I'd like to mention that when you activate or deactivate a plugin, it is better to reload the page where you're editing your content. For example, you activated ACFML but without reloading the content editor simply retried the save. This may have such side-effects because the loaded content may not have needed references while the requested update may expect those.
So I'll request the following:
IMPORTANT: Please take full backup of your website and database beforehand.
It is highly advised to try this on a staging/dev site first, so your live website isn't compromised.
- Since you've updated WPML plugins to the latest, please also update WordPress to the latest version.
- Then retry with only WPML, String Translation, ACF and ACFML active.
- Switch to a standard theme like 2021 or 2024, so we can rule out any conflict caused by your current theme.
- Remember to clear caches and reload the content editors between plugins/themes activate/deactivate and/or switching.
Please let me know your findings. If issue continues to appear it'd be great to share the full error dump as well.
As a developer, you can imagine that I have already tested everything you listed before reaching out to you. As usual, your responses tend to focus on minor details, seemingly to prolong the conversation and discourage users from opening support tickets.
With all plugins and WordPress updated, using WordPress's default theme (by the way, thank you for suggesting a theme from 2021, but we are in 2024), the issue persists exclusively with ACFML.
Clearing the cache doesn't help. Refreshing the page after activating/deactivating the plugin doesn’t help either.
I’m open to having a call together because, in writing, we haven’t received any substantial help in several years.
I need to take a closer look at your site. So I request temporary access (WP-Admin and FTP), preferably to a test site where the problem has been replicated.
Your next answer will be private, to share this information safely.
Also provide detailed steps to reproduce the issue and links to pages in the admin and on the frontend.
IMPORTANT: Please take a complete backup of the site to avoid data loss. I may need to activate/deactivate plugins also.
I'm trying to reproduce the issue in a fresh sandbox site at hidden link (once-click login).
I've exported your ACF Field Groups, Post Types and Taxonomies and 've imported in the sandbox. Then I created a sample page with some blocks and saved. I also tried creating a pattern, saved, reused and resaved, but here I can not reproduce the issue.
The reason is perhaps those blocks, options and fields related stuff is tightly knit with your custom theme, which I didn't import here because I could reproduce the issue with standard 2025 theme in your test site. The same I'm trying here.
May I request you to access the above mentioned sandbox site, take a look for any missing part and try to reproduce the issue? Or if you can advise the steps, I can retry.
Thank you for looking into this and for your efforts in trying to reproduce the issue.
The reason you may not be able to reproduce the problem is that you are working on a fresh sandbox site with minimal content, translations, and data. This is often a significant issue developers encounter when building plugins, solutions, or features on clean installations. Such environments fail to reflect the complexities or performance challenges that arise on larger, real-world websites.
I would recommend importing a copy of the database from our site so you can test with actual complex data. If needed, I can export and provide the database for you.
As a site grows—with hundreds or thousands of pages, posts, translations, and other content—the database size increases significantly. Consequently, SQL queries tend to take longer, especially if they are not optimized. In this case, the function after_copy_custom_field (or perhaps others) seems to query the database every time the "Update" button is clicked. With a large dataset, this process becomes time-consuming and exposes performance issues.
To reproduce this problem accurately, I strongly suggest working with our database, as it includes the volume of data typical of large websites.
I work for a company managing hundreds of websites using WPML, and our team of developers has conducted extensive testing. We've consistently observed performance issues related to ACFML. If you would like, we can organize a call with our team to discuss this in detail and share our findings.
Let me know how you’d like to proceed, and thank you again for your time and cooperation.
Thank you for the updates and I understand your points.
I'll try to either migrate (copy) the site to our Cloudways server or 'll try to grab a duplicator package. And 'll escalate to our 2nd tier team accordingly.
Thank you very much for taking time to complete the migration. I am working on this and 'll get back to you as soon as I find something or have a solution.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation. I've escalated the matter to our 2nd tier team for further investigation. I'll update you as soon as I hear back.
Hello, thank you for acknowledging this request and for conducting your research.
I completely understand that your team likely has other priorities as well, but I was wondering if you might have an estimate of how long this process could take?
We’re just trying to get a general sense of how much time investigations like this usually require.
Unfortunately there's no ETA so far, however, the team has done some investigation and is working on a workaround. But due to current holidays, there may be a slight delay in the progress.
I'll update you as soon as there's more to it. We appreciate your patience and cooperation.
