Custom fields added by plugins are not automatically visible on user or admin pages, unless the plugin also adds UI for them codinghorror. This is because custom fields may have strict structures or be private, as mentioned in a related discussion about adding and editing user custom fields.
Users have encountered this issue and have used plugin outlets as a workaround tgxworld. However, there is still no clean way for plugins to expose custom fields on the user preferences page. merefield is seeking a cleaner solution for this problem.
Continuing the discussion from Adding and editing user custom fields:
Would these fields even show up on user / admin pages I would have assumed it would only be the user_field_X which are added via the site/customize…
I ask, because I’ve created a field called “subdomain” in the database directly, and it’s no where to be seen in the GUI (which is as I expect)
Never, unless the plugin also adds UI for it.
Good. So this isn’t a factor in what I’m whining asking for here
I ran into this problem and wasn’t sure if there was a better way to expose it under User’s preferences.
Any thoughts?
@sam Could I get your thoughts on the above? Thanks 
Well … any update on what ended up happening here 
I ended up using a plugin outlet here. From what I know, we still don’t have a clean way for plugins to expose custom fields on the user preferences page.
I’m trying to do the same … what would be a cleaner way?