I just ran into a similar issue on the only site where I am using cloned fields. In one of my acf/save_post filters I’m getting the sub fields of a repeater and for some reason this is causing an infinite loop that timing out the server. I haven’t got a clue what’s going on with it because it is just one repeater of many, the only difference is that it’s in a nested repeater in a flexible content field that is a clone.
I love ACF, but I may not use cloned fields again. In my case I can skip the code and just not bother with this because what’s being done is not vital.
As far as loading fields that way without issue, going to be honest, I don’t have a clue at this point. The best advice that I can give you is to look in the database and find out exactly how your repeater inside a clone field is stored in the database, what meta keys are used and what information is stored in them.
