After the latest update, it appears that within regular CPTs in the admin, it’s not possible to view the regular, non-ACF custom fields metabox — it’s completely disappeared in checkbox form as an option under Screen Options when editing a CPT.
It is definitely ACF causing this as I can toggle it on & view it with ACF Pro deactivated. Is there something that can be done here? Anyone else experiencing this? Workarounds?
Thanks for any insight!
Yes, just found the same here
With help from a friend was able to find a solution based on the change noted in this post: https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-pro-5-5-13-update/
However, despite what the post says, it seems that it actually isn’t set to false by default. I was able to get custom fields to return by adding:
add_filter('acf/settings/remove_wp_meta_box', '__return_false');
to my functions.php file within the theme.
It’s not a bug. As John pointed out, it’s default behavior as of 5.6.0 (see link above) — so if you want the regular custom fields, as well, then you’ll need to utilize that filter above in your theme’s functions file.
Sorry my misunderstanding… I’m using the filter, so I’m not bothered (anymore).
5.6.1. wasn’t supposed to fix it as far as I know. In 5.6 the default was set to remove the standard WP custom field meta box display to improve performance of the WP admin. I’m sure that it’s possible to create a WP init action or perhaps on some other WP hook, that can determine what admin page is being loaded and decide if it should be shown or not. or you can add
add_filter('acf/settings/remove_wp_meta_box', '__return_false');
to functions.php to show it everywhere. I’ve personally never had much use for the WP custom field editor. I feel that letting it be displayed is a good way to allow people that don’t know what they are doing to have access to things that they should not be allowed to alter.
Can you please set the default to true, and then give us a GUI option to remove or keep? We have CPTs that aren’t available to lower roles that don’t use ACF fields but DO utilize wordpress’ standard custom fields. Having them completely removed and no immediate way to re-enable them is frustrating.
@gilzow doesn’t the filter work for you ?
Hmm, the filter mentionned above doesn’t seem to work for me.
I’m using a parent+child template : placed it in parent then child’s function.php, then both, to no avail. As soon as I deactivate ACF Pro, the metabox (Custom Fields) is back.
Am I the only one ?
Try giving it a higher priority
add_filter('acf/settings/remove_wp_meta_box', '__return_false', 20);
That did the trick, thank you !
Will the removal of the metabox cause any problems?
I code all my themes using only ACF, so it’s no problem for pages and posts, but what about WooCommerce? Isn’t WooCommerce using the built in metabox?
What are the downsides, if any, for disabling it by default?
As far as I know, there is not downside of removing it. It’s a drain on resources and slows down the site. Most plugins add their own custom field metaboxes. The standard WP custom fields display is confusing and as far as I’m concerned is pretty much useless. I’ve been disabling it for as long as it’s been possible to do so and have not run into any issues. I too only use ACF for custom fields.
@hube2 Thanks for a quick response. 🙂
