I had already uploaded everything from local to live, but then had to make a change to ACF.
When visiting the Export page of the plugin, it gives details of what to do but right at the end of importing the XML file, I see Advanced Custom Fields “____” already exists.
It should really just replace what’s there but I thought that maybe I needed to delete it first, but I still see the same message.
Any ideas?
Version 4.4.12
Sorry, but I don’t really understand what your issue is. You’ll need to give more details. You can attach images here; maybe a screen shot of what you’re seeing will help someone help you.
Below are the steps I took in the screenshots attached:
1. Export the Contact data as XML on the Local site
2. Use the WP Importer to import it into the Live site to replace anything that already exists
3. Press the Submit button
4. This is when I see the “Advanced Custom Fields “Contact” already exists” message.
Even if I delete everything in Contact, I still see this message.
You’re trying to import a field group with a name that already exists on the site.
Yeah I know, how can I get around that? I just want to update the field groups as I made some changes and it would be a real pain to do it manually.
What version of ACF are you using?
You’re probably going to have to delete the field group so that you can import it.
You might want to back up the db first.
I’ve already done that. I still get the same message.
You moved the field group to the trash and then permanently deleted it. If you’ve done that then I don’t have a clue. I haven’t used ACF 4 in a while and never use the XML export/import to move or update a field group. I think the only thing that can possibly cause this is that there is something lingering around in your database.
Found that it wasn’t fully deleted. Found it in the database and then realised there was a Trash area within the plugin.
Once it was deleted from the Trash, I was able to add the export.
I don’t really agree with the UX though – it would be much better if it replaced the existing field groups, or at least moved a copy to trash when it did so.
ACF 5 does not use this system. But it still does not let you import field groups that already exist. This is handled by local JSON and syncing.
wp1.png.png
wp2.png.png
wp3.png.png
wp4.png.png
