Wordpress - set post to draft by date-picker custom field

Question

Need to expire post to draft when it reaches date from ACF date-picker field. This is code I'm using:

// expire offer posts on date field.
if (!wp_next_scheduled('expire_posts')){
  wp_schedule_event(time(), 'twicedaily', 'expire_posts'); // this can be hourly, twicedaily, or daily
}

add_action('expire_posts', 'expire_posts_function');

function expire_posts_function() {
    $today = date('Ymd');
    $args = array(
        'post_type' => array('event'), // post types you want to check
        'posts_per_page' => -1 
    );
    $posts = get_posts($args);
    foreach($posts as $p){
        $expiredate = get_field('ev_date', $p->ID, false, false); // get the raw date from the db
        if ($expiredate) {
            if($expiredate < $today){
                $postdata = array(
                    'ID' => $p->ID,
                    'post_status' => 'draft'
                );
                wp_update_post($postdata);
            }
        }
    }
}

What I'm doing wrong? This is my field settings:

And source:

ACF forum

Answer 1

Convert your date format 'j.n.Y' to Ymd.

// expire offer posts on date field.
if (!wp_next_scheduled('expire_posts')){
  wp_schedule_event(time(), 'twicedaily', 'expire_posts'); // this can be hourly, twicedaily, or daily
}

add_action('expire_posts', 'expire_posts_function');

function expire_posts_function() {
    $today = date('Ymd');
    $args = array(
        'post_type' => array('event'), // post types you want to check
        'posts_per_page' => -1 
    );
    $posts = get_posts($args);
    foreach($posts as $p){
        $expiredate = date( 'Ymd', strtotime( get_field( 'ev_date', $p->ID ) ) ); // get the raw date from the db
        if ($expiredate) {
            if($expiredate < $today){
                $postdata = array(
                    'ID' => $p->ID,
                    'post_status' => 'draft'
                );
                wp_update_post($postdata);
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

It looks like your trying to compare the variable $today (which is formatted Ymd - e.g. 20210411) with your field info stored in $expiredate (which is formatted j.n.Y) I think you should change the Return Format on ACF to Ymd so that it matches.

It is true that passing false to get_field() should return the field unformatted, but it appears that you're sending too many parameters to get_field() which should only get up to 3 parameters:

get_field($selector, [$post_id], [$format_value]);

I would try:

$expiredate = get_field('ev_date', $p->ID);

And change the ACF return format to Ymd

Answer 3

I've done similar and it works if you make the ACF return format to U for universal. That way time zones do not pose an issue.