I’ve used this filter https://docs.gravityforms.com/gform_form_settings_initial_values/ to change the initial values for the sub-label and description placement from “below” to “above”. It works as expected in the form settings and shows the correct initial values, but in the form itself it’s not applied unless I manually save the form settings, which is not ideal. I would want these initial values to be applied directly to the form… Am I missing anything? What can I do to solve this problem?
The purpose of that filter is to populate the initial settings into the form settings. Then it’s up to the user to save the form with those initial settings or change them.
And if you want to avoid the saving step, then you will want to modify the $form object dynamically before rendering the form, this can be done using the gform_pre_ … filters. For example: https://docs.gravityforms.com/gform_pre_render/