Replacing the battery in my iPhone 7

Thanks very much for your helpful answer, lobsterghost1. I had a strong gut feeling there was going to be a snag in my plan! I did notice there were no iPhone replacement batteries manufactured by Apple itself for sale on Amazon. That should have alerted me.

Unfortunately however responsible the staff at my local Apple Store are about health precautions it can't go there because to get there I'd have to make a journey of nearly two hours in a coach full of people. I'm in my 70s, and though I've been fully vaccinated and though all Covid-related restrictions are about to be lifted here in Scotland, I admit I'm too afraid of Covid-19 to go out and about the way I used to..

I have two options: I could continue to make a lot of use of the iWalk portable charger I've bought. It's a relief to use the phone with it attached because otherwise I get such erratic messages from the phone about how much battery I have left that I don't know where I am. The alternative is to find out if I can send my phone by post to the Apple repair service. I'm going to find out all I can about the latter. Thank you again for your advice.

Thank you, Luke. I'm about to post my phone to Apple to have a new battery put in. I do hope that the previous owner hasn't had an unauthorised person do things to the phone. I suppose that's something people buying second-hand are taking a chance on.

Right now I'm wishing I'd splurged out on a brand-new iPhone that didn't need a new battery or anything else done to it, but I didn't know how hard I'd find it to use an iPhone and I thought a brand new one would be a waste of money if I didn't like it so hardly used it. I bought the phone through Amazon; it seems Amazon buys old phones, has them checked, then sells them on with a year's Amazon guarantee, but I don't suppose the check goes beyond making sure the phones are in working order. I'll just have to hope that all goes well and Apple put a new battery in.

Thank you, lobsterghost1. I phoned Apple and someone there talked to me about my battery problem and has arranged for me to send my phone in by mail for a new battery. Let's hope things go smoothly.

Thanks for your kind words about Scotland. I do hope you get the chance to visit Scotland some day.