Reply To: Updating metadata (in bulk) the right way

• John Huebner

• September 16, 2021 at 2:19 pm

If you have a URL stored then how you are attempting to get the ID is the only way that I know of to do this.

As far as bulk updating this would be very difficult for someone that has experience, I would not attempt this.

I would create code similar to what you have for when the post is updated, except that I would move the check to see if there is a value before I did any work

// put at top of function
if (!empty( get_field('volunteer_attachment', $post_id))) {
  // ACF field. Don't update if already it's been filled in.
  return;
}

Then try to get the ID value. When you update you need to use update_field() with the field key (not the field name) because it is an image field that does not already have a value.

update_field('field_XXXXXXX', $file_id , $post_id)'

Once this is in place I would alter my theme file to use the new value and use the old value if the new field does not have a value

if (get_field('new_field_name')) {
  // new field has a value, use it here
} else {
  // new field has no value, get value of old field and use it instead
}