No way to exit to watch face during activity

On the Enduro 2 and prior Fenix watches, pressing back multiple times would allow me to exit the activity data screens to the watchface. I used this quite a bit to conserve battery life on long runs when not needing to seeing any data and after a period of time the UI would automatically show my first data screen in the activity. This is no longer possible, the back button does absolutely nothing.

Top Replies

garminuser5555 8 months ago +1 suggested

Also reported here:
https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-8-series/383107/holding-back-button-during-activity-has-no-function-on-fenix-8-amoled

I've enabled the Shortcut…
gingerneil 8 months ago in reply to garminuser5555 +1

That's how I've had it on my 955 and now on the enduro 3. Not sure it's a 'workaround' more just that's how you do it.
Dr Phil 8 months ago in reply to garminuser5555 +1

But this is a new UI. Single press of back button has always started a new lap not a switch to the watch face. Even on the F7 the long press of the back button was defaulted to Recents. Users needed to…

All Replies

0 garminuser5555 8 months ago

Also reported here:
https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-8-series/383107/holding-back-button-during-activity-has-no-function-on-fenix-8-amoled

I've enabled the Shortcut for Watch Face as a workaround for now for the Back button.

0 gingerneil 8 months ago in reply to garminuser5555

That's how I've had it on my 955 and now on the enduro 3. Not sure it's a 'workaround' more just that's how you do it.

0 garminuser5555 8 months ago in reply to gingerneil

As stated in the original post, the back button behavior was consistent in the Enduro 2 and Fenix 7 and earlier watches, this is the only method to return the previous behavior in the new UI.

0 gingerneil 8 months ago in reply to garminuser5555

Isn't the back button for triggering a lap? If you can use it to go back to the watch face, how did you do a lap on the other watches? It wasn't like that on the forerunner series.

0 Dr Phil 8 months ago in reply to garminuser5555

But this is a new UI. Single press of back button has always started a new lap not a switch to the watch face. Even on the F7 the long press of the back button was defaulted to Recents. Users needed to program the back button to see the watch face. It’s not a work round..it’s what you do.

0 6805874-Micha 8 months ago in reply to gingerneil

If you turned off lap button pressing back brings you to the watch face

0 Dr Phil 8 months ago in reply to 6805874-Micha

Good spot. That’s something I’ve not used on the Epix or F7 and had completely overlooked. Under the activity settings there’s a setting after 3D Distance to turn of Lap Key, which as stated above will allow the back button to go to the watch face when pressed in an activity. Press it during an activity to go to the watch face, press top right to return to the activity screens. A similar setting is on the Enduro 3 under Laps of the activity settings.