====== How To Bootstrap & Delete The DB ======
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=====New Method as of Jan 2024=====
As of **core version 4.4.1** and **UI version 4.4.4** there is a **'Refresh (bootstrap)'** button in **Node Management** within the Qortal UI.

In **version 4.4.5 of the UI** there will be an **automatic check, and message pop-up** that comes up once you've logged into the UI. This message will tell you if you are 1000+ blocks behind, and will offer you the Refresh (bootstrap) button to click. 

  * **Login** to the **Qortal UI**
  * Access '**Node Management**' plugin
  * Click '**Refresh (bootstrap)**' button at the top right
  * Give it 5-10 minutes to complete

Clicking the Refresh (bootstrap) button will take care of the bootstrap process for you. Whether you access it 'manually' in **Node Management** or in the **automatic notification** after version 4.4.5 release of the Qortal UI.

This is by far the easiest way to bootstrap your node, and doesn't require you to have to find files on your machine, or do any commands in the terminal, etc... Simply click the Refresh (bootstrap) button, and give it **about 5-10 minutes to complete** and **get fully synchronized again.** 

That's it! 

See below for the older methods of bootstrapping manually, or to undestand the details of the bootstrapping process. 


=====Old Methods / Details=====

To synchronize your node faster, you can easily 'bootstrap'. The UI doesn't sync, it just shows what your Core is doing. The Core is what syncs. Bootstrapping is when you download a compressed archive of the block database. It will be much faster to get that all at once, than to sync one block at a time from peers.

**Please note:** for ALL operating system types you can stop the core, delete the db folder, then start the core and it’ll automatically begin the bootstrap process… OR you can use the methods below (totally your choice and achieves the same result).

When the bootstrap process begins, you’ll see the popup with several 0-100% processes being completed. This may take an average of 30-60 minutes depending on your internet speed. The bootstrap servers may also fail from time to time, in which it’ll retry to bootstrap. For those with slow internet speeds, you may have trouble with this bootstrapping process. Also keep in mind that once the popup goes away, your node is NOT 100% synced - it’ll need to finish syncing the remaining blocks as a new bootstrap is created every 12 hours - this means your node will need to sync the remaining blocks since the latest bootstrap. You can 1) hover over the core icon in the system tray to view the current block height of your core, or 2) open your UI and view the current block height. You can then compare that number with the actual block height on the chain by going to exqlorer.com to get an idea of how far off your node is to becoming 100% synced. 

==== Mac, Linux & Raspberry Pi (QORTector)====

  - Close the UI if it is open
  - Copy and paste in terminal to first stop the core, wait for the message "ended successfully":<code>cd qortal && ./stop.sh</code>
  -  Copy and paste in terminal to remove the database folder and start the core, which will recreate the db folder and begin the bootstrap process: <code>rm -R db && ./start.sh</code>
  - Bootstrap will begin! 

==== Windows ====

There are two ways you could go about this.. 

Option 1: 
  - Close the UI if it is open
  - Stop the Core if it is running (select exit from the core icon in the system tray)
  - Locate the 'qortal' app folder: C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME HERE\AppData\Local\Qortal
  - Locate the 'db' folder
  - Delete the db folder
  - Start the Core
  - Bootstrap will begin! 

Option 2: 
  - Close the UI if it is open
  - Stop the Core if it is running (select exit from the core icon in the system tray)
  - Right click start button and click run
  - Copy and paste the following into the run command
<code>%localappdata%\qortal</code>
  - Run it (push ENTER), and it will open the folder with the qortal db folder in it
  - Delete the db folder then start the Qortal core
  - Bootstrap will begin! 

==== Manual Bootstrap ====

If there are issues when the Core attempts to automatically download or extract the bootstrap, it's possible to do this process manually instead. Download a bootstrap archive file from one of the following links, extract the archive, and place the "blockchain.*" files into a folder named "db" within the "qortal" folder.

Full archive options (5.6 GB): \\
https://bootstrap.qortal.org/bootstrap-archive.7z \\
https://bootstrap2.qortal.org/bootstrap-archive.7z \\
https://bootstrap3.qortal.org/bootstrap-archive.7z \\