Found my old Galaxy S10 from years ago, but I’m locked out. Are these photos gone forever?

I recently found my old Samsung Galaxy S10 while cleaning up, and it still turns on. The thing is, I haven’t used it in years.

I remember setting it up a long time ago, but since then I’ve changed emails, phones, and basically everything. When I try to get into it now, I realize I don’t actually remember what account I used back then. It’s not like the phone is broken or anything, it’s just locked.

What’s bothering me is that I know there are photos and notes on there that were never backed up. At the time I didn’t think much about it, and now it feels a bit stupid in hindsight.

I’ve read about official recovery options, but a lot of them assume you still have access to the original account or info, which I don’t. So I’m kind of stuck between “keep trying” and “accept that it’s gone”.

For people who’ve been in a similar situation with older Android phones, what did you end up doing?