Easily sync your ACF fields using acf-json

If you use Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) in WordPress but haven’t set up acf-json, you’re missing out on a huge time-saver. I’ve worked on plenty of projects where ACF is in play, but acf-json is not. Once you start started using it, you’ll never looked back.

What is acf-json?

Normally, ACF saves your custom fields in the database. That works fine… until you need to:

• Move fields between staging and production
• Work in a team without overwriting each other’s changes
• Roll back field changes with version control
• Speed up WordPress by reducing database queries

This is where acf-json comes in. When enabled, ACF saves field groups as JSON files in your theme, making them portable, trackable, and much faster to load.

How to Enable acf-json (only takes 30 seconds!)

ACF actually supports this out of the box—you just need to set it up.

1. Create a folder in your theme:

/wp-content/themes/your-theme/acf-json/

2. Save a field group in ACF → it will automatically generate a JSON file inside that folder.

That’s it – no plugins, no extra setup.

To make sure it’s working

Check your acf-json folder in your theme and you’ll see a file will have appeared, named something like group_4435395845.json. This contains all the info about your ACF field and will update automatically whenever you save changes in ACF. See below:

ℹ️ You can also edit these .json files directly, if you know what you’re doing. You’ll just need to sync it in ACF afterwards!

Syncing field groups across environments

If you do edit your .json file directly or, for example, another developer makes some ACF changes on a staging site, then you’ll need to sync your changes. This is super simple, and all you need to do is:

1. Login to WordPress.
2. Go to ACF > Field Groups.
3. Check across the top where you should see ‘Sync Available’ as an option (See screenshot below).
4. Click this, and then sync all fields that you want.

What if you already have ACF fields, but want to introduce acf-json?

If you already have a bunch of ACF fields set up, but want to start using acf-json, no worries!

1. Still follow the same steps above, however you will notice your .json files don’t magically appear in the acf-json folder.
2. Go to WordPress Admin > ACF > Field groups
3. Check all your field groups and ‘deactivate’ them.
4. Re-activate them all
5. This saves your ACF fields, and therefore creates the .json files in the acf-json folder.

Why you should be using this

• No more “Why aren’t my fields updating?”
• No more copy-pasting fields between sites
• No more “Oops, I overwrote your ACF changes”
• Faster WP Admin with fewer database queries

Final thoughts

If you’re building WordPress sites with ACF and not using acf-json, you’re making life harder for yourself. It’s one of the simplest features in ACF, and once you start using it, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.