Broken Link Checker Not Detecting Links in ACF link Fields

Hi @rossgurung,

Trust you are doing good and thank you for reaching out to us.

It seems you’re using the old local engine to run the scan. Could you please switch to the new Cloud engine and run a fresh scan?

I hope this helps. Let us know if you continue to experience any issues.

Kind Regards,
Nebu John

Hi Nebu,

Thank you for your reply.

We are planning to use only the non-cloud version of the plugin. Could you please advise if there’s a way to make the Broken Link Checker work with ACF link fields in this version?

We conducted further testing and noticed that broken links within ACF link fields are not being detected—even when they are not used within Gutenberg blocks but are directly added to the front end.

Your guidance on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Best regards

Hi @rossgurung

Your issue could be related to the broken link checker settings, please make sure the plain text is enabled in the plugin’s local engine settings.

Please refer to this screenshot:
https://monosnap.com/file/5WRuI4BcuUqEpoWwcTcIKM6lnjKwpp

If the broken link checker still cannot find those links please share the code used to implement the links in fronted (in your templates) to investigate further, you can use Pastebin website to share the codes.

Kind Regards,
Amin

Hi Amin,

Thanks so much for getting back to me and for the screenshot – really appreciated! I made sure the plain text option is enabled in the plugin’s local engine settings, as suggested.

For testing, I set everything up using a default WordPress theme, with only ACF and the Broken Link Checker plugins activated. I created an ACF Link field, applied it to the default template, and output the link on the front end, but unfortunately, it still didn’t detect the link.

Given I’ve tested this with a minimal setup and confirmed the plain text setting is enabled, I feel this should demonstrate the issue clearly, without needing to share the code. Could you advise on what else I might try or if there’s something else I’m missing?

Thanks again for your help, and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Kind regards,

Hi @rossgurung

Hope this message finds you well.

Could you share the Local BLC configuration for your ACF fields?

https://prnt.sc/KM0rS06G6NiA

Local BLC should detect most of ACF fields but sometimes it might not. Please share this also the ACF you created so we can try to replicate it on our end.

Best regards,
Laura

Hi Laura,

I hope you’re doing well! I’ve created a new test ACF link field with the key
"field_670d230b41be3" for you. I even tried adding the key with the HTML, but no luck.

You can find the test ACF field’s JSON file below. I tested it again with the Broken Link Checker, but it’s still not being picked up. I tried it across multiple themes, including the default WordPress Twenty Twenty-Four theme.

[
{
"key": "group_670d230aedac7",
"title": "BLC Test Link",
"fields": [
{
"key": "field_670d230b41be3",
"label": "Link example",
"name": "link_example",
"aria-label": "",
"type": "link",
"instructions": "",
"required": 0,
"conditional_logic": 0,
"wrapper": {
"width": "",
"class": "",
"id": ""
},
"return_format": "array",
"allow_in_bindings": 0
}
],
"location": [
[
{
"param": "post_type",
"operator": "==",
"value": "page"
}
]
],
"menu_order": 0,
"position": "normal",
"style": "default",
"label_placement": "top",
"instruction_placement": "label",
"hide_on_screen": "",
"active": true,
"description": "",
"show_in_rest": 0
}
]

Thanks again for your help, and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Kind regards
RG

Hello @rossgurung,

I hope things are going well for you.

Thanks for sharing the ACF JSON export file. I imported it to the lab site and used the ACF shortcode display method to display the site link on the front end. However, the BLC was unable to detect that, and we reported the improvement internally to the Broken Link Checker team.

The team will check the request soon and consider improving it in future updates. At the moment, we can’t share an ETA or make any promises about when the request will be improved.

I greatly appreciate your patience and understanding in this case.

–
Thanks & Kind Regards
Imran Khan

Hello @rossgurung

We haven’t heard from you in a while, I’ll go and mark this thread as resolved. If you have any additional questions or require further help, please let us know!

Best Regards
Amin