diff --git a/php/class-utils.php b/php/class-utils.php
index d733479a..83c3282f 100644
--- a/php/class-utils.php
+++ b/php/class-utils.php
@@ -334,8 +334,17 @@ protected static function table_installed() {
 	 * Install our custom table.
 	 */
 	public static function install() {
-		// Ensure that the plugin bootstrap is loaded.
-		get_plugin_instance()->init();
+		$plugin = get_plugin_instance();
+
+		// Ensure the plugin metadata (version, paths) is available for the DB
+		// routines below, but avoid re-running init during activation when it has
+		// already run on the `init` hook. Re-running the full bootstrap out of
+		// sequence during activation can destabilise plugin load order for the
+		// request (e.g. triggering other plugins such as ACF to initialise too
+		// early). We only need the plugin version here, not the component graph.
+		if ( empty( $plugin->version ) ) {
+			$plugin->init();
+		}
 
 		$sql = self::get_table_sql();