Title: whatwedo ACF Cleaner Author: whatwedo Published: February 22, 2021 Last modified: October 1, 2024 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/assets/banner-772x250.jpg?rev=2901561) This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress. ![](https://ps.w.org/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/assets/icon-256x256.jpg?rev=2901561) # whatwedo ACF Cleaner By [whatwedo](https://profiles.wordpress.org/whatwedo/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/whatwedo-acf-cleaner.1.2.2.zip) * [Details](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/#description) * [Reviews](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/#reviews) * [Installation](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/#installation) * [Development](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/) ## Description We analyze the post of the selected post types against the ACF groups in use. Afterwards we remove all data from deleted groups. There’s a dry run available (discovery) to see how many fields would get removed. On the actual cleanup you get prompted because it can’t be undone (so make a backup first). ### Contribute Developed with ♥ by [whatwedo](https://whatwedo.ch) in Bern. Thanks to [TrilipuT](https://github.com/TrilipuT) for contributing. This plugin was initially created for our own usage to clean a big database from old ACF data. Check out the [GitHub repository](https://github.com/whatwedo/whatwedo-acf-cleaner) and submit pull requests or open issues ## Screenshots [⌊The option page for the plugin. You can find it in "Tools / ACF Cleaner"⌉⌊The option page for the plugin. You can find it in "Tools / ACF Cleaner"⌉[ The option page for the plugin. You can find it in “Tools / ACF Cleaner” [⌊On every post type with unused data the following metabox is shown⌉⌊On every post type with unused data the following metabox is shown⌉[ On every post type with unused data the following metabox is shown ## Installation The plugin can be found it the WordPress Plugin Directory. Search for “ACF Cleaner”. #### Manual Installation 1. Upload the entire `/wwd-acf-cleaner` directory to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory. 2. Activate “whatwedo ACF Cleaner” through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress. 3. Do a database backup manually or use a third party tool 4. Go to “Tools / ACF Cleaner” 5. Select the post types you want to clean and run it ## FAQ ### What about conditional fields Conditional fields are not taken in account at this point. This is probably also the issue why there’s nothing like this baked into the ACF plugin itself. Down the road it gets pretty complex. ### Output the names of the deleted fields We are aware that it would be handy to know which exact fields will get deleted, so the user can analyzing the actual data. This could be integrated in a future release. We already know the name of the fields and we’re also returning them from the server. Since they’re a lot of unordered data, we don’t do something proper with those in the frontend . ### Support more than just post meta ACF allows fields for term meta, user meta etc and not just post meta. This plugin only works with post meta for now. There’s a ticket in the WordPress Support page for this: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/support-more-than-just-post-meta/. We’re happy to accept pull requests. ## Reviews ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/fb31f647f8ab53a18cdca8f7c13b5329bba9c2ac5525279b17331d9a80e426b5? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Worked perfectly](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/worked-perfectly-344/)󠁿 [MaryMak](https://profiles.wordpress.org/maxms/) May 26, 2026 Removed all entries for fields that no longer exist in ACF. Refreshingly easy. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e5d4a56e21833cb1ba020d19bb4b4b9aa5814dddae9c658d769f6d3335abd97c? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Really helpfull for dev](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/really-helpfull-for-dev/)󠁿 [Alexsoluweb](https://profiles.wordpress.org/alexgmenard/) September 27, 2025 Really helpfull when developping/refactoring fields…Great jobs and thanks for it! ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/95d5e9b67f64579be051465b7033b05fb677d40627c38108630e29b1c67446e4? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Does exactly what it says](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-exactly-what-it-says-265/)󠁿 [Greg](https://profiles.wordpress.org/gconrad0922/) March 4, 2025 Thank you very much, helps me trim a lot of fat from _postmeta table when building a new site. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/31187b6d0fc1b672d7bdc908d3494008a7297099bd244fd575627a0f919d643a? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[WP::$tool_menu_id is deprecated](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wptool_menu_id-is-deprecated/)󠁿 [dimuchios84](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dimuchios84/) December 17, 2024 Creation of dynamic property whatwedo\AcfCleaner\WP::$tool_menu_id is deprecated wp-content/plugins/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/class/class-wp.php:91 ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5999123009d2c98889f3170c93c4cd60b40ce8d7c0eccc06f46e24e27bf82e06? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Such a useful plugin for ACF. Is it abandoned though?](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/such-a-useful-plugin-for-acf-is-it-abandoned-though/)󠁿 [Manou Allou](https://profiles.wordpress.org/manouallou/) July 4, 2024 2 replies This plugin does a tremendous good job finding and cleaning old and obsolete custom fields from the database. A must-have for database cleanup after development. While it still works OK, it would be nice to see that it is actively maintained and updated. The notice on the plugin's main page on the WordPress repository can turn away many people from using it. This plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress. Devs, are you there? ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/2cec9a7a9c367b426416f3d65991055ab0fea75d0ad2e8764d902bc6579781d8? s=60&d=retro&r=g) ### 󠀁[Great for the anal-retentive among us](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-for-the-anal-retentive-among-us/)󠁿 [altimac](https://profiles.wordpress.org/altimac/) October 4, 2023 I have to admit, it was really bugging to know that I had all manner of ACF fields that I had replaced, reconfigured, abandoned etc. during the dev process, and when using any theme builder to assign ACF fields to various modules, I was seeing fields that I had long ago abandoned. In one case I went from a custom field in a CPT, to a taxonomy for that CPT, and I used the same name, so that field was still in the database with some values entered for it, and in my theme builder I saw two different field assignment options with the same name ;-( Yes, I could work around that, and it is not bringing my site to a crawl or anything to have the superfluous fields in there. But I was able to use this plugin to easily remove that field, along with a few others I knew I wanted to remove, and even some I had forgotten about. So kudos for giving folks like us a way to clean all this obsolete stuff out of the db. [ Read all 10 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/reviews/) ## Contributors & Developers “whatwedo ACF Cleaner” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ whatwedo ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/whatwedo/) * [ Marc Wieland ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/marcwieland95/) * [ Vitaly Nikolaiev ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/trilliput/) [Translate “whatwedo ACF Cleaner” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/whatwedo-acf-cleaner) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 1.2.2 (2024-10-01) * Test if everything still works with WordPress 6.6 and PHP 8.3 and bump versions for the WP repo #### 1.2.1 (2023-05-25) * Prevent error when no clone field is used (thanks to [melcarthus](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/undefined-array-key-_clone/) for reporting) #### 1.2.0 (2023-04-20) * Find more orphans (repeater and clone fields) * Improve loading of plugin when included via a theme * Return notice when Advanced Custom Fields is not installed * Show more CPT in the list (also not public once are visible now) #### 1.1.0 (2022-07-14) * Add single post metabox with detailed info for unused fields (thanks to [TrilipuT](https://github.com/TrilipuT)) * More precise unused fields detection added (thanks to [TrilipuT](https://github.com/TrilipuT)) * Add check if Advanced Custom Fields is installed (thanks to [sebastian_a](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sebastian_a/)) for reporting it #### 1.0.0 (2020-02-22) * First release ## Meta * Version **1.2.2** * Last updated **2 years ago** * Active installations **700+** * WordPress version ** 5.5 or higher ** * Tested up to **6.6.10** * PHP version ** 7.0 or higher ** * Language * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/) * Tags * [acf](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/acf/)[admin](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/admin/) [advanced custom fields](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/advanced-custom-fields/) [cleaner](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/cleaner/)[cleanup](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/cleanup/) * [Advanced View](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/advanced/) ## Ratings 4.8 out of 5 stars. * [ 9 5-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/reviews/?filter=5) * [ 0 4-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/reviews/?filter=4) * [ 1 3-star review ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/reviews/?filter=3) * [ 0 2-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/reviews/?filter=2) * [ 0 1-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/reviews/?filter=1) [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ whatwedo ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/whatwedo/) * [ Marc Wieland ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/marcwieland95/) * [ Vitaly Nikolaiev ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/trilliput/) ## Support Issues resolved in last two months: 0 out of 1 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/whatwedo-acf-cleaner/)