AdvancedCustomFields / AdvancedCustomFields/acf
Disabled Field Groups and syncing of JSON files
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- Dominant language
- PHP
- Stars
- 945
- Forks
- 197
- PR merge metrics
- No merged PRs in 30d
Description
Hi there,
I just updated to ACF PRO 5.9.3 on one of my sites. After updating, I noticed some strange behaviour with the syncing of JSON field groups: I get presented with a syncing option for all the field groups that are acf-disabled, even though I already had those in my databse before the ACF update.
When clicking sync for those, they are being imported as a duplicate of the already-installed field groups. Here's a screenshot after running the sync twice:

See how even the field group key is the same for the duplicates?
Some more background on my setup: I have one flexible content field 'Modules' that contains clones of my actual modules field groups, that I always name "Module: {{Module Name}}" and set to acf-disabled, so that I don't have to worry about them showing up anywhere except when cloned to my main "Modules" flexible content field.
You can see how in the screenshot there are two duplicates for each of the modules "Module: Iframe", "Module: Profile" and "Module: Accordeon". Clicking 'sync' again would create the next batch of duplicates...
Contributor guide
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First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Reproduce the issue with ACF PRO 5.9.3 using disabled field groups, cloned flexible-content modules, and JSON synchronization. Start by tracing the sync behavior for existing groups with identical field-group keys, then verify that syncing does not create duplicate groups when the disabled groups are already installed.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- php, wordpress
- Domain
- backend, content
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100