Some persons suggested that I should revert to an earlier version (v28.1 or v25), with the assumption that those versions sync better and use less data. I am not even sure how accurate that advice is. I would however appreciate any advice on this. Should I downgrade, change some settings, or is v29.0 simply more data intensive?
Leaving v28.1, there'll be an issue if you want to continue syncing using an older client.
That's because after v28, newly created block files are XOR'd which isn't compatible with clients older than v28.0,
So if ever those assumptions have technical basis unknown to us, you'll have to start over if you want to downgrade <v28.0. (
unless you use blocksexor=0)
Can you share the doc or post where found those information?
It would be interesting to check the reasons of why they think that it'll faster.
(
I hope it's not because they think that the blockchain was relatively smaller when those versions were released)