get_user_meta returning empty when it’s NOT empty

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I can confidently say that it is empty at the point at which your code checks the variable. The three possibilities are:

  1. $user_id is not set or is set to an incorrect value. As you don’t
    show the code that sets this value, I can’t tell.
  2. You are using the wrong key.
  3. Something is hooked into get_user_metadata and is causing a
    problem.

While I am not 100% sure, I am fairly sure that those are an exclusive list.

If you can post your code with more context I might be able to do better.