query posts by ACF field not working - wordpress

Question

There are plenty of topics related to mine, but I still haven't found a solution. I'm trying to query posts by ACF field (radio button) and it seems that the meta_query gets completely ignored. It returns all the posts, instead of only those matching the criteria. I have tried using the field key instead of field name, other comparisons, etc. nothing seems to work. Hope you have an idea of what may be wrong! Here's my code:
<?php
$post_args = array(
'post_type' => 'products',
'posts_per_page' => - 1,
'status' => 'publish',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'meta_key' => 'product_taste',
'meta_value' => array( 'cold' ),
'compare' => 'IN',
),
array(
'meta_key' => 'product_served',
'meta_value' => array( 'grated' ),
'compare' => 'IN'
)
),
);
$query = new WP_Query( $post_args );
if ( $query->have_posts() ) {
while ( $query->have_posts() ) : ?>
<?php
$query->the_post();
?>
<h5>
<?php the_title(); ?>
</h5>
<?php endwhile ?>
<?php wp_reset_postdata();
}
?>

Answer 1

Use 'key' and 'value' in the 'meta_query' array
You don't need to use meta_key and meta_value in a meta_query... you only use those directly in the $args array. If you are adding a meta_query array, you just use key and value, e.g.
$post_args = array(
[...]
'meta_query' => array(
array(
'key' => 'product_taste',
'value' => 'cold',
'compare' => 'LIKE',
),
[...]
2. Querying serialised data with an array of values
There can also be issues using 'compare' => 'IN' with an array of values, when you are trying to query ACF data, because the ACF data can be serialised in the database (e.g. if data is in a repeater).
As you will only ever search for a single value, you can use LIKE instead of IN.
Putting these together
$post_args = array(
'post_type' => 'products',
'posts_per_page' => - 1,
'status' => 'publish',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => 'product_taste',
'value' => 'cold',
'compare' => 'LIKE',
),
array(
'key' => 'product_served',
'value' => 'grated',
'compare' => 'LIKE'
)
),
);
$query = new WP_Query( $post_args );
If the data is serialized and you have values that could return multiple matches (e.g. LIKE 'cold' would match words like "cold", "colder","coldest"), then try adding a semicolon (;) at the end of the value, e.g.
[...]
array(
'key' => 'product_taste',
'value' => 'cold;', // add ; to the end of the value
'compare' => 'LIKE',
),
array(
'key' => 'product_served',
'value' => 'grated;', // add ; to the end of the value
'compare' => 'LIKE'
)
[...]
This will work when the values are serialised in the database, because each item will be separated by a semicolon.