Despite my misgivings on the InReach Mini being an older outlier from the current Garmin ecosystem, recent in-field testing experience has demonstrated a high "just works" factor.
Power it on (outdoors and ideally a few minutes before starting out, eg. while getting your pack / other gear sorted), turn on tracking (if not set to auto-track which makes it even simpler) and let it do its thing. Turn off tracking when back at base, then power off shortly after (once its last message has been sent). If you care about the more granular logging points then fire up the ancient EarthMate app on your phone (twice, due to a stupid bug!) and within a few seconds these are sync'd too.
On around 10 recent all-day trips over a couple of weeks it has worked reliably and without fault. I've even used the fenix remote widget to send preset messages (in my case to mark/notify arrival on peaks), again this has worked as expected. Battery life hasn't been a concern, went from daily charging (habit) to every 2 or 3 days or when I remembered.
All in all not as slick as other later Garmin products, same for the Explore / MapShare website, but gets the job done just fine. As it's a device which is primarily for safety, with the added connivance of the remote tracking, I'll take its reliability over fanciness every time.
= Recommended.
