WP_query on field groups not working unless additional custom field added to pos

Hi there

I’m running into an issue with trying to run a custom WP_query using custom field values. I’ve got a custom field group (‘event fields’) attached to all posts. In this group is a field called ‘eventdate’. My query is supposed to get upcoming or previous events depending on the page being accessed.

The problem is that the query doesn’t work unless I add a separate custom field to the post to hold “eventdate” and manually enter a the date string. Obviously this is redundant and I can’t use the datepicker widget.

Not sure what I’m missing here.

$currentdate = date("Y-m-d");
$wp_query = new WP_Query(array(
  'posts_per_page' => -1,
  'meta_query' => array(
  array(
      'key' => 'eventdate',
      'compare' => '>=',
      'value' => $currentdate,
      'type' => 'DATE')),
  'meta_key' => 'eventdate',
  'orderby' => 'meta_value',
  'order' => 'ASC'
));

Once the query runs successfully, I’m able to use the_field(‘eventdate’) without any issues.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/