Title: ACF removed native custom fields, cannot find data
Last modified: May 21, 2019

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# ACF removed native custom fields, cannot find data

 *  [laughoutlam](https://wordpress.org/support/users/laughoutlam/)
 * (@laughoutlam)
 * [7 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/acf-removed-native-custom-fields-cannot-find-data/)
 * I have activated the ACF plugin however I am working with an older website and
   they have lots of data in the native custom fields. The issue is when ACF is 
   activated, I can no longer access the data in the native custom fields – it just
   disappears. I have tried adding the code add_filter(‘acf/settings/remove_wp_meta_box’,‘
   __return_false’);
    to my functions.php file however I get a Warning: Division
   by zero error Is there a way to quickly transfer all data from native custom 
   fields to advanced custom fields, or a way to stop ACF from removing the native
   custom fields?

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  [wwwolf](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wwwolf/)
 * (@wwwolf)
 * [7 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/acf-removed-native-custom-fields-cannot-find-data/#post-11597358)
 * Same issue, but the native ones have not gone, they’re just no longer displayed.
   There are instructions in various support threads to switch their visibility 
   back on, but under Gutenberg this doesn’t work. Checking the Custom Fields box
   under:
 * Show more tools & options > Options > Advanced Panels: Custom Fields
 * simply reloads the page but does not reveal them. The only way I could see mine
   again was to disable ACF. Not good. If I want to rigorously check data has come
   across correctly (even on a sample of posts) I guess I’ll have to do it in phpMyAdmin–
   and I’ve no idea how to subsequently delete the native fields once I’ve finished.
   I wish ACF had an option (tho not by default!) to ‘adopt’ native fields instead
   of hiding them but not actually doing anything with them.
 * Anyway… apparently, you can migrate existing fields by creating ACF fields with
   the same name, then saving each blog post to populate the new one. But you have
   to make very sure you set up the ACF Groups structure correctly first, as you
   can’t move things around later without messing it all up. I shall feed back here
   if I manage to make this work (and if I find a way of mass-populating the replacement
   fields, rather than having to manually open and ‘Update’ each post individually.
    -  This reply was modified 7 years ago by [wwwolf](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wwwolf/).
      Reason: minor typos
 *  [wwwolf](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wwwolf/)
 * (@wwwolf)
 * [7 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/acf-removed-native-custom-fields-cannot-find-data/#post-11599332)
 * There seem to be other odd things about using this with Gutenberg – I just tried
   to set a field to appear “High (after title)” and it simply didn’t change anything–
   field still appears down the bottom after the Post content.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘ACF removed native custom fields, cannot find data’ is closed to new 
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## Tags

 * [custom fields](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-fields/)

 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [wwwolf](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wwwolf/)
 * Last activity: [7 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/acf-removed-native-custom-fields-cannot-find-data/#post-11599332)
 * Status: not resolved