diff --git a/src/classes/repositories/class-tainacan-item-metadata.php b/src/classes/repositories/class-tainacan-item-metadata.php
index 58957a4ea..3b35a5938 100644
--- a/src/classes/repositories/class-tainacan-item-metadata.php
+++ b/src/classes/repositories/class-tainacan-item-metadata.php
@@ -56,7 +56,17 @@ class Item_Metadata extends Repository {
 		if ( $metadata_type->get_primitive_type() == 'term' ) {
 			$this->save_terms_metadatum_value( $item_metadata );
 		} elseif ( $metadata_type->get_primitive_type() == 'compound' ) {
-			// do nothing. Compound values are updated when its child metadata are updated
+			// Create a post_metadata with value [] to compound metadata or return if it already exists 
+			// to use as parent_meta_id for child metadata
+			global $wpdb;
+			$compounds = $wpdb->get_results( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT * FROM $wpdb->postmeta WHERE post_id = %d AND meta_key = %s and meta_value = ''", $item_metadata->get_item()->get_id(), $item_metadata->get_metadatum()->get_id() ), ARRAY_A );
+			if( is_array($compounds) && !empty($compounds) ) {
+				$meta_id = $compounds[0]['meta_id'];
+				$item_metadata->set_parent_meta_id($meta_id);
+			} else {
+				$meta_id = add_post_meta( $item_metadata->get_item()->get_id(), $item_metadata->get_metadatum()->get_id(), '' );
+				$item_metadata->set_parent_meta_id($meta_id);
+			}
 			return $item_metadata;
 		} else {
 			if ( $unique ) {
diff --git a/src/views/admin/components/metadata-types/compound/class-tainacan-compound.php b/src/views/admin/components/metadata-types/compound/class-tainacan-compound.php
index 0c3cbd513..2a0209d26 100644
--- a/src/views/admin/components/metadata-types/compound/class-tainacan-compound.php
+++ b/src/views/admin/components/metadata-types/compound/class-tainacan-compound.php
@@ -169,6 +169,8 @@ class Compound extends Metadata_Type {
 	public function get_value_as_html(Item_Metadata_Entity $item_metadata) {
 		$value = $item_metadata->get_value();
 		$return = '';
+		if ( empty($value) )
+			return $return;
 		$separator = $item_metadata->get_multivalue_separator();
 		
 		if ( $item_metadata->is_multiple() ) {