flashlight

Some solutions:

1. wear the watch higher on your arm
2. buy some cheap rubber bumper case for the watch that will make the buttons harder to press accidentally
3. you can try to wear it on the other arm, maybe you use that differently, although then you might accidentally press the start/stop button which is worse than the light button
4. you can try to use the "Lock Device/Device Lock" to prevent double clicks while hiking

According to the manual, "Lock Device" should be an option in some activities, but I don't see it in the running activity (probably not in Trail Running either, but you can check). -- this seems like a bug to me.

I was also about to suggest to add "Lock Device" to your control wheel, but weirdly that's even missing from the manual. The Enduro 3 manual has it, and I can confirm that this exist on the Enduro 3, which is basically the same firmware... so this should be available on the FR970 too:

Anyways I'm not sure if this would help you, as you might also long press the button, if you often double press it.

Here: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/forms/ideas/

However note that I never heard about a single person that got an answer back from Garmin after submitting their idea there. (Including myself when I did do it a couple of times.) I also never seen anything implemented that people mention on the forum like you, and then subsequently submitting it there.

This page pretty much exist to be a black hole where support people can send us to short circuit any conversation about all the great ways things could improve. 

A lot of times this includes obvious logical bugs when they say that things are "by design like that", and if you don't like it then submit an idea. Good luck!

thank you

I already tried the Garmin's lock feature, but it doesn't work because the same thing happens: it unlocks accidentally during activity due to the trekking pole straps. The solution I see is that when the flashlight is activated (intentionally or accidentally), a confirmation message should appear for 5 seconds before turning it on; if it's not confirmed, it shouldn't turn on.

I think your best short term bet is a case. I'm using one during bouldering and it takes real intention to press then buttons while it's on my Enduro 3. Search for "Forerunner 970 bumper case" on aliexpress or amazon and I'm sure you find some. Their price on the former is about 4-5 eur, so you don't have much to lose trying one.

Yes, this is just a wailing wall, nothing happens. Ever. No feedback either.

Yes, I'll try it, thanks.

I already found the solution, you can change the button shortcut so that its function is not to turn on the flashlight.