user5406: I¹ am trying to sync Bitcoin Core v24.0.1 on my Desktop with 16 GB RAM and an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, but it is taking forever even to get past the header synchronization. It tells me that it will take over 3.5 years to synchronize.

3 hours later, my node is still in Header Synchronization:


I have a decent internet connection and am connected to my router via wifi
I downloaded Bitcoin Core v24.0.1 from bitcoincore.org
I’m using an internal hard drive
I have ten connections, but have only received about 340 kB across my eight outbound connections in the past ~10 minutes minutes 
I have tried to add a few nodes from bitnodes.io via addnode <ip> onetry to perhaps learn about more peers (and the added nodes show up when I call getaddednodeinfo as past connections)
I have over 365 GB of free disk space

Update:

My node was already configured to run in pruning mode
I’ve increased my dbcache to 10 GB
My debug.log appears to show that I’m switching my peers frequently 

Any ideas what else I should try?

¹Asking for a friend.

user139612: Without knowing your bitcoin.conf settings and debug.log, it is difficult to say. Generally speaking, however, here are a few things:

365GB is not enough space, so you'll have to run in pruned mode or upgrade your hard drive
SSD drives tend to be much faster than HDD drives when performing IBD
dbcache is 450MiB by default. If you have 16GB of RAM available, you can set dbcache to a much higher value to help speed up IBD
If you are pruning, make sure to set your dbcache and prune values to be similar. If your prune value is lower than your dbcache value, your node will not use all the available memory. See Does pruning during IBD reduce the ability to utilize the dbcache fully? for more information

EDIT: As pointed out in the comments, headers sync should not be taking 3 hours. Based on https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/26391 , it sounds like corrupted block data could be the cause. If you can confirm that by looking in your debug.log, restarting your node with -reindex is an option. However, it's difficult to recommend a solution without knowing what's in your debug.log first.

5406: <p>I¹ am trying to sync Bitcoin Core v24.0.1 on my Desktop with 16 GB RAM and an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, but it is taking forever even to get past the header synchronization. It tells me that it will take over 3.5 years to synchronize.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/wjKmQ.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/wjKmQ.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>3 hours later, my node is still in Header Synchronization:<br />
<a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZB8Zx.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZB8Zx.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<ul>
<li>I have a decent internet connection and am connected to my router via wifi</li>
<li>I downloaded Bitcoin Core v24.0.1 from bitcoincore.org</li>
<li>I’m using an internal hard drive</li>
<li>I have ten connections, but have only received about 340 kB across my eight outbound connections in the past ~10 minutes minutes <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/YDRce.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/YDRce.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></li>
<li>I have tried to add a few nodes from bitnodes.io via <code>addnode &lt;ip&gt; onetry</code> to perhaps learn about more peers (and the added nodes show up when I call <code>getaddednodeinfo</code> as past connections)</li>
<li>I have over 365 GB of free disk space</li>
</ul>
<h2>Update:</h2>
<ul>
<li>My node was already configured to run in pruning mode</li>
<li>I’ve increased my dbcache to 10 GB</li>
<li>My debug.log appears to show that I’m switching my peers frequently <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/cgcb9.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/cgcb9.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Any ideas what else I should try?</p>
<hr />
<p>¹Asking for a friend.</p>
 139612: <p>Without knowing your <code>bitcoin.conf</code> settings and <code>debug.log</code>, it is difficult to say. Generally speaking, however, here are a few things:</p>
<ul>
<li>365GB is not enough space, so you'll have to run in pruned mode or upgrade your hard drive</li>
<li>SSD drives tend to be much faster than HDD drives when performing IBD</li>
<li><code>dbcache</code> is 450MiB by default. If you have 16GB of RAM available, you can set <code>dbcache</code> to a much higher value to help speed up IBD</li>
<li>If you are pruning, make sure to set your <code>dbcache</code> and <code>prune</code> values to be similar. If your <code>prune</code> value is lower than your <code>dbcache</code> value, your node will not use all the available memory. See <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/116653/does-pruning-during-ibd-reduce-the-ability-to-utilize-the-dbcache-fully">Does pruning during IBD reduce the ability to utilize the dbcache fully?</a> for more information</li>
</ul>
<p>EDIT: As pointed out in the comments, headers sync should not be taking 3 hours. Based on <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/26391" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/26391</a> , it sounds like corrupted block data could be the cause. If you can confirm that by looking in your <code>debug.log</code>, restarting your node with <code>-reindex</code> is an option. However, it's difficult to recommend a solution without knowing what's in your <code>debug.log</code> first.</p>
