diff --git a/src/fields/traverseFields.ts b/src/fields/traverseFields.ts
index 07f06ca748..f2fda2dfcd 100644
--- a/src/fields/traverseFields.ts
+++ b/src/fields/traverseFields.ts
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ const traverseFields = (args: Arguments): void => {
       dataCopy[field.name] = JSON.parse(data[field.name] as string);
     }
 
-    const hasLocalizedValue = (typeof data[field.name] === 'object' && data[field.name] !== null)
+    const hasLocalizedValue = (typeof data?.[field.name] === 'object' && data?.[field.name] !== null)
       && field.name
       && field.localized
       && locale !== 'all'
diff --git a/src/localization/plugin.ts b/src/localization/plugin.ts
index 40eba807f5..32d9a1c626 100644
--- a/src/localization/plugin.ts
+++ b/src/localization/plugin.ts
@@ -73,18 +73,6 @@ export default function localizationPlugin(schema: any, options): void {
         return value;
       })
       .set(function (value) {
-        // multiple locales are set as an object
-        if (value && typeof value === 'object' && !Array.isArray(value)) {
-          const { locales } = options;
-          locales.forEach((locale) => {
-            if (!value[locale]) {
-              return;
-            }
-            this.set(`${path}.${locale}`, value[locale]);
-          }, this);
-          return;
-        }
-
         // embedded and sub-documents will use locale methods from the top level document
         const owner = this.ownerDocument ? this.ownerDocument() : this;
         const locale = owner.getLocale();