Extreme slow sync speed MacBook Pro 2.7GHZ #11725

1. 
   robvaneck commented at 8:56 pm on November 18, 2017: none

   Hi,

   • I’m on a MacBook Pro Retina 2.7Ghz I7, 8GB RAM.

   • High Sierra OSX 10.13.1

   • Internet speed is 84 Mbits.. so I download 10-11MB/s.

   • Downloaded Bitcoin Core (latest stable from the website) 0.15.1,

   • Im on a mac, so limited HDD.. so I’ve set-up blockchain on external USB 3.0 2TB external disk with speeds up to 120 MB/s

   • I expected Bitcoin Core to download + sync within 24 hours

   • But it’s taking ages, as in: Im just over 50% within 48 hours.. progress per hour is 0.10%

   • EDIT: another interesting fact.. CPU usage of Bitcoin-Qt was around 3-6%.. memory aroundd 200-400MB.

   1. Im on a fast computer, with great internet.. so what is causing this?
   2. How do you launch with other config settings to test? like dbcache=4000?
   3. What should I do?
   4. Is this a software thing?
2. 
   robvaneck commented at 9:04 pm on November 18, 2017: none

   And second problem, just now.. it hangs on start-up. I closed it an hour ago, it crashed. I opened it again, it says: ‘checking block..4%… 100% etc.’… ‘done loading’ and then nothing: it freezes at the splash saying it ready loading. But I get the Mac infinite spinner.
3. fanquake added the label MacOSX on Nov 18, 2017
4. 
   jonasschnelli commented at 6:25 am on November 19, 2017: contributor

   Bitcoin Core and its database layer (leveldb) work best on internal disks. External hard dives cause often problems (data corruption, etc.).

   I recommend you to use pruning (same security, complete full node, but you don’t send old blocks to other peers).

   The low CPU usage could be caused by disk write bottleneck.

   You should definitively enable -dbcache=4000. Either you create a bitcoin.conf file in /Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/ and write into a text file dbcache=4000 or you open the Bitcoin GUI settings and change the value there.

   Pruning can’t be set via the GUI settings. So write prune=550 into the bitcoin.conf file on a extra line.

   Because you have changed your data directory to your external hard drive. You may want to “reset the settings” (via GUI setting) first.

   Optionally you can also enable debug=bench (add this to your bitcoin.conf) to get more benchmark info. You can see them then in the file debug.log

5. laanwj added the label Resource usage on Nov 19, 2017
6. 
   TheBlueMatt commented at 11:32 pm on November 19, 2017: member

   @jonasschnelli I believe the GUI settings dialog also allows you to modify the dbcache DB memory limit setting, no? Same with pruning? If it really is stuck (and not just stuck waiting for 30 minutes on I/O latency), share the debug.log.
7. 
   jonasschnelli commented at 11:48 pm on November 19, 2017: contributor

   @TheBlueMatt: Pruning can’t be enabled/configured via the GUI. DBCache: yes, as I wrote.
8. 
   robvaneck commented at 4:16 pm on November 21, 2017: none

   Adding those 3 lines to my config file didn’t speed up things..

   prune=550 dbcache=5000 debug=bench

   Im trying again now form my SSD.

   Any other tips?

   Is it usual to only see 1 active bitcoin connection to the network?

9. 
   jonasschnelli commented at 7:11 pm on November 21, 2017: contributor

   Can you pastebin your debug.log somewhere? It should be in ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/debug.log. Have you made sure to reset the GUI settings (reset default) before relaunching with your new bitcoin.conf (to make sure it uses the right data-dir)?
10. 
    TheBlueMatt commented at 0:16 am on November 22, 2017: member

    Even with pruning the I/O latency of an external disk sync can make IBD painfully slow. I’m not sure that we couldn’t avoid some fsync calls in block writing which may make things very significantly better.

    On November 21, 2017 11:11:54 AM PST, Jonas Schnelli notifications@github.com wrote:

    Can you pastebin your debug.log somewhere? It should be in ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/debug.log. Have you made sure to reset the GUI settings (reset default) before relaunching with your new bitcoin.conf (to make sure it uses the right data-dir)?

    – You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/11725#issuecomment-346130362

11. fanquake closed this on Mar 6, 2018

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12. MarcoFalke locked this on Sep 8, 2021

Contributors
robvaneck jonasschnelli TheBlueMatt

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macOS Resource usage