Bitcoin Core 17.0 won't sync

I’ve had my node running on Bitcoin Core 17.0 since it dropped. After a recent computer update, it seems to be stuck at block 888602. The node looks like it’s still working since there are peers connected, but I can’t access my wallet or do any transactions while it’s trying to sync. It’s been like this for a month and hasn’t made any progress. Anyone got tips to speed things up or a workaround? Appreciate any help!

Check your "debug.log" file for the possible issue. If you don't know what the line means or what to do with it, post those errors and mention your settings in your GUI or "bitcoin.conf" file in your next reply.

I'm afraid that in this situation you’ll likely end up with three main options, namely, applying rescan/reindex to copy of blockchain you have or starting IBD from scratch. My recommendation would be to start with rescan first. If that doesn’t solve the issue, then move on to reindexing.In terms of speeding up these processes, unfortunately, there isn't much that can be done beyond optimizing your hardware, as these operations are highly dependent on system resources. However, if none of these options work and you decide to proceed with IBD you might speed up the synchronization process by increasing the dbcache size and limiting the node to only download blocks.

If you're willing to upgrade version of your Bitcoin Core, you will obtain faster sync time. Fairly old blog post[1] shows the trends Bitcoin Core sync performance getting better as new version is released. [1] https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-core-performance-evolution/

May I ask why you insist to clinge on version 0.17.0 from October 2018 which even had minor updates fixing some bugs and whatnot else? While asking for your reasoning doesn't quite provide an answer to your problem, I'm still genuinely interested. As someone else said, first look into the debug.log file if there are any clues to your non-progressing sync before you proceed with time-consuming rescans or even a new IBD (initial blockchain download). You might again end up getting stuck at block 888602. A very sloppy search didn't reveal anything special with that block but I might be missing something. Just a wild guess: what antivirus do you have? Have you tried turning it off temporarily and not doing stupid things for a moment, just to see if it's not some rogue antivirus that blocks something so that your ancient Core version simply can't proceed. (Though I want to think it would complain in some way or another.)