Speeding up Ethereum-Wallet initial sync on MacOS X

After experimenting with the Ethereum Wallet client on a linux machine I decided to install on my MacPro with OS X 10.11.5.  I installed the latest Ethereum-Wallet 0.8.1 app from github and launched the app.  I soon noticed that the sync would appear to freeze at various points and never achieved a full sync. This despite multiple force quits and restarts. Close, but never closer! After some poking around I found a nice summary of the problem and a workaround I wanted to share. StackEchange is my goto source when I have any computer problem and it paid off again today.   Under the topic “Help with slow mist sync” I found several good answers and things to try.  Caveat: what I’m about the describe worked for me, but I am hardly a knowledgable expert and this may be wrong from a technical perspective. It turns out that, using the command line interface Ethereum client called geth, you can initiate a fast sync by setting certain flags when the program is run.  Details are here.  This will only work, however, if it’s the first attempt at a sync.  I had made dozens of attempts, so I needed to delete all these files.  The first thing I tried worked: I went to my user Library folder (Finder–>Go–>Go To Folder, then type “~/Library” and select ‘Go’). Once there, locate the Ethereum folder and open it. Delete the folder called ‘chaindata’.  (Don’t worry. This folder will be recreated when y...
Source: Waking Up Costs - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Tags: Ethereum MacOS < Source Type: blogs