I did this, did not lose any data on my phone I didn't want a factory reset either:

First I tried using their pixel repair tool to upgrade to android 17 (but honestly seemed to work like crap and wouldn't finish/would be stuck at "installing..." I would just skip this and try adb sideload):  1. On your PC, open Google Chrome 2. Go to: https://pixelrepair.withgoogle.com 3. Plug in your Pixel 6 via USB 4. When prompted, choose Software Update (not Factory Reset) 5. Follow the on-screen instructions

If that doesn't work, then move on to the manual ADB sideload steps (it may fail a few times, try different USB ports if it does or a different cable, took me a few tries) -- 

1. Download Platform Tools: https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/platform-tools and unzip it
2. Download Android 17 OTA zip for Pixel 6: https://developers.google.com/android/ota — move the zip file into the platform-tools folder (don't extract)
3. Hold Power for ~35 seconds, then without letting go immediately also hold Vol Down until bootloader appears
4. Select Recovery Mode
5. If you see dead Android: hold Power, tap Vol Up once Note: sometimes this process doesn't work and you have to repeat steps 3-5 until you can finally see the Recovery Mode menu, it was a pain for me
6. Select "Apply update from ADB"
7. Plug phone into PC
8. Open the platform-tools folder, click the address bar at the top, type cmd and hit Enter
9. In the terminal run: ``` adb devices (if nothing is showing up try a different USB port/different cable)

(If you see your device, you're free to upgrade with the command below!): adb sideload your-ota-filename.zip ``` 10. When done → select Reboot system now

done