<p>Yes there is. The bottleneck is I/O speed and normal HD drives are really slow. You can move the chainstate directory (around 3GB) to an SSD. If your laptop doesn't have an SSD you can use an SSD thumb drive. </p>

<p>There are instruction how to do that in the <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Splitting_the_data_directory" rel="nofollow noreferrer">wiki</a>. I did that using an usb stick SSD and the whole chain synced in a liitle less than 12 hours.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-06T20:09:45.643Z
I moved the entire data directory to an SSD, resulting in a minor improvement at best. Interested in knowing what others have found.
Rich Apodaca
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-06T23:33:15.950Z
@RichApodaca the data directory doesn't matter much. Did you move the chainstate dir?
Mike D
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-07T05:03:33.617Z
I believe chainstate is a subdirectory of the data dir. I moved the entire data directory, so therefore the chainstate directory. No?
Rich Apodaca
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-05T15:04:40.240Z
2018-06-05T15:04:40.240Z
Mike D
<p>The single most important change you can make is increasing the database cache. If you have enough memory, setting it to a few gigabytes can speed things up by a large factor.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-05T16:56:35.093Z
2018-06-05T16:56:35.093Z
Pieter Wuille
<p>So I changed the location of the directory to my own HD instead of my external HD and increased the database cache. Now it runs like a charm.
Thanks guys</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-31T11:02:38.340Z
Thanks, I think you can update your question with this information
Freewind
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-06T09:23:08.013Z
2018-06-06T09:23:08.013Z
user95737
<p>I am currently running bitcoind v0.16.0.0 on my macbook (osx 10.12.6) and the initial sync time is really slow. I'm syncing at roughly 88 blocks per hour which would mean it would take another 2 months to sync up..
In the activity monitor it looks like bitcoind is using only 3% of the CPU time.
Could this be the issue? Is there any way to speed it up?</p>

<bitcoind><synchronization>
bitcoind sync time incredibly slow
user95737
# bitcoind sync time incredibly slow

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-06-05)

I am currently running bitcoind v0.16.0.0 on my macbook (osx 10.12.6) and the initial sync time is really slow. I'm syncing at roughly 88 blocks per hour which would mean it would take another 2 months to sync up..
In the activity monitor it looks like bitcoind is using only 3% of the CPU time.
Could this be the issue? Is there any way to speed it up?

**Tags:** bitcoind, synchronization


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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-06-05. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Yes there is. The bottleneck is I/O speed and normal HD drives are really slow. You can move the chainstate directory (around 3GB) to an SSD. If your laptop doesn't have an SSD you can use an SSD thumb drive.

There are instruction how to do that in the [wiki](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Splitting_the_data_directory). I did that using an usb stick SSD and the whole chain synced in a liitle less than 12 hours.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: I moved the entire data directory to an SSD, resulting in a minor improvement at best. Interested in knowing what others have found.  
> **username_1**: @username_2 the data directory doesn't matter much. Did you move the chainstate dir?  
> **username_2**: I believe chainstate is a subdirectory of the data dir. I moved the entire data directory, so therefore the chainstate directory. No?  

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### Answer by username_3 on 2018-06-05. Score: 1

The single most important change you can make is increasing the database cache. If you have enough memory, setting it to a few gigabytes can speed things up by a large factor.


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### Answer by username_0 on 2018-06-06. Score: -1

So I changed the location of the directory to my own HD instead of my external HD and increased the database cache. Now it runs like a charm.
Thanks guys

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: Thanks, I think you can update your question with this information  

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