[Google Pixel 4 Questions & Answers] frankbodyofwater:
I have lost all hope that Google will do anything or I will find a fix by myself with no experience in coding or how android devices work. I've tried my absolute hardest to save my phones photos with no progress. With quarantine happening I've spent a good amount of time looking in to this, here is everything I know.

A simple reboot very rarely fixes it for some people

Rebooting multiple times very rarely fixes it, worked for some people. I've rebooted 100+ times and it didn't

Rebooting to safe mode does nothing, worked in this persons case

You can bypass the lockscreen to another looping screen, shown here, by either brute forcing it, shown in video here. Or by hitting enter and the power button simultaneously when putting in the correct pin, something I found out myself by messing around. From here you can enable USB-Debugging and other settings. Unfortunately, any setting that requires a pin crashes the settings app so you cannot remove the pin from there. In the Google support thread he mentions you can create a new user and control your phone from there but I haven't been able to do it myself

The phone is shown as encrypted in the settings

Other people who were experiencing this issue found a way to replicate it but still no progress from Google has been made

Sideloading the latest OTA does nothing

Phone is only detected in ADB when it is locked, isn't when on the Pixel is starting screen.

Phone is not detected by a PC, shows as MTP USB Device in device manager or another unknown device

Phones storage cannot be accessed in Ubuntu, although it's detected and shown

The confirm prompt that is supposed to show when doing the ADB backup command doesn't show up

ADB pull cannot access the phones files

When on the Pixel is starting screen it's detected as unlocked when using this ADB command

3rd party data recovery softwares successfully install the APK but fail to launch, you can grant app permissions via settings on the phone

Trying to start ANY application with adb commands shows this error message

Uninstalling every app that can be uninstalled from settings does nothing

Disabling/enabling EVERY setting in the settings app did nothing

This bug dates back to FIVE YEARS AGO (Edit: make that seven!)

Deleting locksettings.db or gesture.key on a rooted device with custom recovery or on ADB works, source. REQUIRES AN ALREADY ROOTED DEVICE. Also shown to work here (scroll all the way to the bottom)

Leaving the Pixel is starting screen overnight doesn't work

Leaving the phone on zero battery for multiple days doesn't work

A security update happened the same night the loop started

Locking the phone via Google Find My Device worked for someone in the original support thread which has been locked, multiple threads on the same issue have been made.

Restarting the bootloader in recovery mode worked for someone in the thread too

Disabling live wallpaper in settings does nothing

Someone said that switching to 3 button navigation fixes it, it does not

Could be caused by SoundAssistant/apps with appear on top permissions source

Isn't caused by a wallpaper, i've disabled every wallpaper process and app

Likely caused by corrupt update

Disabling/Force stopping wallpaper related apps changed the wallpaper on the pixel is starting screen to a pink sky with mountain range one

Switching active partitions requires an unlocked device

While on pixel is starting screen, ADB shows the device as unlocked

Aaaand that's all I can remember, there is probably more but these are all that comes to mind. School is starting extremely soon and I am very, very close to taking the hard to swallow factory reset pill but everything I did would've gone to waste, 6 months without a phone I won't get back. So I've come to you guys and am asking if there is ANYTHING I can do that doesn't require a data wipe. Thank you for your time.

For the sources & clickable links, please go to my reddit post (/r/AndroidQuestions/comments/ihcdc0/pixel_4_on_a_lockscreen_loop_for_176_days_what/) add reddit dot com before the link as I cannot post links as a new user.

EDIT: I am now severely ****ed. Sideloaded android 11, didn't fix it. Went to see developper options and fat fingered disable developper options and to re-enable you need your pin which crashes the settings app. Since it wasn't fixed in android 11, september 5 security update AND september 1st google play update I am 100% certain that there will be no fix put out. Resetting later today and never buying a Google phone.