# Bug report — Classic Monks 2.1.0
**Subject: Admin Columns Manager renders ACF Date Picker fields as 23/08/1970**
## Environment
- Classic Monks 2.1.0
- Advanced Custom Fields PRO 6.8.7
- WordPress 7.0.3, PHP 8.3.20
## Summary
When a column is added for an ACF **Date Picker** field via Admin Columns Manager, every row
displays the same wrong date — `23.08.1970` — regardless of the actual stored value.
Sorting by the same column works correctly; only the rendered output is wrong.
## Steps to reproduce
1. Create a custom post type with an ACF field of type **Date Picker** (e.g. `puppy_birthday`),
display format `d.m.Y`.
2. Add a few posts with different dates, e.g. `07.04.2025` and `24.02.2026`.
3. Enable **Admin Columns Manager** and add that field as a column for the post type.
4. Open the post list.
**Expected:** `07.04.2025` and `24.02.2026`
**Actual:** both rows show `23.08.1970`
## Root cause
ACF’s Date Picker stores its raw meta value in `Ymd` format, e.g. `20250407` — a numeric
**string**, not a Unix timestamp.
`render_acf_field()` deliberately fetches the unformatted value:
```php
$value = get_field( $meta_key, $post_id, false ); // → “20250407”
```
and for `date_picker` (line 322) passes it to `format_date_value()`, where line 668 reads:
```php
// functions/core/content/admin-columns/class-admin-columns-custom-fields.php:668
$timestamp = is_numeric( $value ) ? (int) $value : strtotime( (string) $value );
```
`“20250407”` passes `is_numeric()`, so it is cast to a Unix timestamp:
20,250,407 seconds ≈ 234 days after 1970-01-01 → **1970-08-23**.
This also explains why *every* row shows the same date: any realistic `Ymd` value
(1900-01-01 … 2100-12-31) maps into a ~23-day window in August 1970, and most land on exactly
the same day.
The identical expression also exists at `class-admin-columns-core.php:1362`, which affects plain
custom-field columns configured with the “date/time” format type.
**Not affected:** `date_time_picker` and `time_picker`. ACF stores those as `Y-m-d H:i:s` /
`H:i:s`, which are non-numeric, so the `strtotime()` branch handles them correctly. The bug is
specific to `date_picker`.
**Note:** the field is classified correctly elsewhere — `get_meta_type_for_field()` maps
`date_picker` to `DATE`, and MySQL casts `‘20250407’` properly, which is why sorting gives the
right order. Only rendering is broken.
## Suggested fix
Detect the `Ymd` form before falling back to the numeric-timestamp branch:
```php
private function format_date_value( $value, $format, $with_time ) {
$value = (string) $value;
$timestamp = false;
// ACF Date Picker stores its raw value as Ymd, e.g. "20250407".
if ( preg_match( '/^**\\d**{8}$/', $value ) ) {
$date = DateTime::createFromFormat( 'Ymd', $value );
if ( $date ) {
$timestamp = $date->setTime( 0, 0 )->getTimestamp();
}
}
if ( false === $timestamp ) {
$timestamp = is_numeric( $value ) ? (int) $value : strtotime( $value );
}
if ( ! $timestamp ) {
return $value;
}
// … existing formatting code unchanged …
}
```
An alternative would be to let ACF format date fields itself
(`get_field( $meta_key, $post_id, true )`), but that returns the field’s own Return Format and
would override the column’s date-format settings, so the explicit `Ymd` check above is probably
preferable.