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When a xprofile field is deleted, the field meta data and each member’s data re that field is NOT deleted.

But the data is orphaned – iow. the data is related to a field ID that no longer exists.

It’s a delicate fix.
Backup your database first.

Then try this…

Don’t delete the current field – Change it to a selectbox.
Note the field_id ( in the wp-admin url )

Then adapt and run this function to add countries:
https://gist.github.com/shanebp/119ffd879acc56c324ab

Use these parts:

$countries = array( ... ); 

foreach (  $countries as $country ) {
	
	xprofile_insert_field( array(
		'field_group_id'	=> 1,
		'parent_id'		=> 28,  // the field_id of the field
		'type'			=> 'option',
		'name'			=> $country,
		'option_order'   	=> $i++
	));
	
}