Greenback staking, huge wallet, non-responsive and unworkable client.
If you've got a GB wallet staking you will inevitably end up with a functional but completely non-responsive and unworkable client/wallet. Such a wallet will be staking fine though! But even unlocking the wallet for staking will be killing. There is a workaround!
First of all when your wallet hits more than 100k transactions you will experience serious slowing. From there on and especially above 200k transactions your wallet will be impossible to handle. I guess the amount of transactions logged in the wallet.dat and the monstrous size (100 ... 200+ mb) are the cause. A running wallet will keep staking well though, so behind the surface it does it's job properly!
A first step to progress is made by transferring your data directory to an SSD (USB) drive. This will increase disk access and transfer enormously. Change the shortcut / batch file that starts up the GB wallet to: greenbacks.exe -datadir="A:\directory\of-choise". Using a network drive as data directory is a bad practice.
Make a BACKUP copy of the entire data directory regularly!!
Do NOT make a backup while the client is running: you might corrupt your wallet file.
- wallet.dat -> obvious
- debug.log -> if too large: rename for backup and a new file will be generated at startup
- blk0001.dat -> blockchain
- txleveldb -> block database which CAN be rebuild but it takes AGES! backup well!
- db.log -> tell you if you have database problems. This file should stay empty.
To regain access the trick is to have a synchronized wallet, keep it running while you disable networking. Your wallet will stay synchronized but it will stop staking and after some time [0 ... 30 min(!)] your interface will be fully responsive and workable again! You can now lock/unlock, properly shutdown and make a backup (!), enter new addresses and do your thing, but especially schedule transactions! Once you have finished your business you can enable networking again and after some time business will be as usual and you will see your transactions being processed.
IT DOESN'T HURT TO MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR WALLET.DAT *** BEFORE *** THE TRANSACTIONS ARE ENCLOSED IN YOUR WALLET !!!
Unfortunately it isn't possible to clean out or reorganize the wallet.dat file. The only way to go on with GB - Greenbacks is to set up a new node, create new addresses and step by step transfer your coins from the old wallet to your the new wallet on your new node. Adding the new addresses to your old node's address book makes your life easier. The step-by-step process handles two things: it spreads the risk of losing coins, and there are more fragments to stake on, so staking will pick much faster. Transferring coins out of your old wallet (automatic coin selection!) will make your old wallet faster!
A new node can be created by copying the old node, dispose of wallet.dat, debug and db.log and start. So you don't have to sync your wallet from scratch over the network. Saves lots of time. If you want to restore an old wallet, copy it in now and re-scan.