After posting the OP above I continued to flail around searching the internet for a solution and, while I have not found a general solution to my problem statement, I have solved the challenge for my own immediate purposes. In case anyone is interested, I found that the particular podcast I'm...

How can I download an mp3 podcast from Dropbox to my iphone and then play it? I will listen to the (long) podcast in chunks, over time. In other words, I need a method that will remember where I left off. I prefer to avoid using iTunes. Thanks for any tips!

Thanks very much for the reply.

I have an iPhone 7 running 13.3. Is there an app that automates the manually-intensive (that is, manually selecting each item) deleting of photos/attachments for Mail and Messages? After searching, I've not been able to find such an app. Thanks in advance.

FWIW (in case someone else has been experiencing this problem), the problem went away within the past week, although I am not sure which update (Maps, Apple Music, IOS) fixed it.

Thanks for the helpful suggestion. I'd done the 'clear cache' thing prior to my original post, although I'm guilty of being vague (I wrote "force RAM utilization down") so you couldn't have known. That function DOES reduce RAM usage temporarily from 90+% to around 70%, although it quickly...

Ledsteplin, thanks for the reply. It is an iPhone 5S. I don't know whether the issues I've been seeing are due to RAM. Is the footprint size information that is difficult to find publicly?

I was performing some routine maintenance (deleting cache, etc) in order to keep my v12.4.3. 5S running as well as can reasonably be expected when I noticed that the lowest that I can force RAM utilization down to is around 70%. This is with only one app running, Status Monitor by techet.net...

zstairlessone, right. Having witnessed how quality works from the inside of a different large company, I think the root cause is Amazon's prioritization of cost vs quality (of both product and support). In other words, I don't blame the support technicians, even though I find my experience...

933, yeah, it's hard to keep up with the phone_model/IOS_supported matrix in one's head. I agree that jailbreak is not a good option for me. Thank you so much for your research and detailed replies!!! I very much appreciate it.

Right, but that menu does not apply to my phone. My OP begins with: "On v12.4.3 5s". I cannot install or run v13 on a 5s, right?

I don't seen an Indian 'Accent' listed when 'Language' is set to 'English (United States)', so maybe that's a v13 option (not supported on my 5s). Your reply gave me a nudge to take another look at Siri settings, and I see now something that I had forgotten, which is that there are 9 options...

About an hour ago I thought to do this test: With Amazon Music playing a song, I used Google Maps for directions. The Google Maps voice (correctly) interrupted Amazon Music with directions, when appropriate. I realize this test does not definitely isolate the issue to any particular app, but...

933, thanks for the reply. When I go to Settings -> Siri & Search -> Amazon Music, I see two settings: Siri & Suggestions (which is, and has been, enabled) Allow on Lock Screen (is, and has been, enabled)

scifan57, thank you for the reply. I have not contacted Amazon about this because: 1. I thought perhaps it was an issue of user ignorance (not knowing where to find the setting); and 2. Amazon tech support is really, really, really frustrating to deal with, in my experience. So, that's a last...