How To Turn On Garmin Instinct | Button Steps That Work

Hold CTRL (top-left) until the display lights up and the watch vibrates, then release.

If your Garmin Instinct is new, fully drained, or just sitting there with a dark screen, turning it on can feel oddly uncertain. The watch is built to be tough, so it doesn’t always react like a phone. No big splash screen. No long chime. Just a few quiet signals that tell you it’s alive.

This walkthrough gets you from “blank screen” to “watch is on” with zero guesswork. You’ll learn the exact button to press, how long to hold it, what to look for on the screen, and what to do if nothing happens.

How To Turn On Garmin Instinct

The Garmin Instinct powers on with the CTRL button. On most Instinct models, CTRL is the top-left button, also used for the backlight. Garmin’s button layout notes that pressing the LIGHT/CTRL button turns the device on. Instinct owner’s manual button layout.

Step-by-step power on

1. Pick up the watch and face the screen toward you.
2. Press and holdCTRL (top-left).
3. Keep holding until you see the screen light up or you feel a vibration.
4. Release the button once it starts booting.

On a healthy battery, the screen usually wakes within a few seconds. If the watch has been flat for a while, it can take longer to show any sign of life after you connect it to power. More on that in a minute.

What “on” looks like on an Instinct

Depending on model and settings, “on” can look like any of these:

• A Garmin logo or brief boot screen.
• A vibration with the display lighting up.
• The watch face appears with time and data fields.
• A pairing prompt on first start.

If you get any one of those, you’re done. If you get light but no watch face, keep reading, because that narrows the problem fast.

When a “dead” watch is just out of charge

Most “won’t turn on” cases come down to power. The Instinct can sit at zero charge long enough that a quick button press won’t do anything. In that state, your first move is boring but effective: charge it the right way.

Charge it like you mean it

• Use a wall outlet with a USB power adapter, not a laptop port.
• Seat the charging clip fully so all contacts touch.
• Leave it connected for at least 15–30 minutes before judging anything.

Then try the same power-on action again: press and hold CTRL until the screen wakes.

Quick checks that save time

• Look at the charging contacts: if there’s grime, sweat salt, or sunscreen residue, charging can be flaky. A soft cloth helps.
• Try a different power brick: a weak adapter can trick you into thinking the watch is charging when it’s barely sipping power.
• Don’t rush the first minutes: a deeply drained battery may need a short “wake up” period before the screen reacts.

If the watch shows a charging symbol but still won’t boot after a good charge window, that points to a stuck state, not a dead battery.

Turning on a Garmin Instinct watch when it won’t start

Sometimes the watch isn’t off. It’s frozen. That can look identical to “dead,” because the screen can stay blank and the buttons feel ignored. In that situation, you want a restart cycle that forces the watch to shut down, then power back up.

Garmin’s troubleshooting steps for Instinct describe a restart using CTRL: hold it until the device turns off, then hold CTRL again to turn it on. Garmin’s “Restarting your device” steps.

Force a restart with CTRL

1. Press and hold CTRL.
2. Keep holding until the watch shuts down.
3. Release, wait a moment, then hold CTRL again to power it up.

If your watch was stuck, this often brings it back without changing your settings.

If nothing changes, add power to the restart

If the screen stays dark, do the same restart sequence while the watch is connected to a wall charger. This removes “weak battery” from the equation and gives the electronics a steadier feed during boot.

A small detail that helps: don’t “tap-tap” the button. Hold it cleanly and steadily. The Instinct reads a long press as a deliberate power action.

Common symptoms and what they usually mean

The fastest way to fix a power-on issue is to match what you see to the right next step. This table keeps you from trying random button combos.

What you notice	What to try next	What success looks like
Blank screen, no vibration	Charge via wall outlet 15–30 minutes, then hold CTRL	Charging icon or boot screen appears
Backlight flashes, then goes dark	Hold CTRL longer for a full power-on attempt	Logo shows, then watch face loads
Charging icon shows, but no boot	While charging, hold CTRL to restart, then hold again to power on	Boot progresses past the logo
Vibrates, but display stays off	Increase backlight level after it boots; test in a dark room	Watch face becomes visible
Stuck on a logo for a long time	Hold CTRL until it shuts down, then hold CTRL to start again	It reaches the watch face
Turns on only while connected to charger	Charge longer; try another cable/adapter; re-seat charging clip	Stays on after unplugging
Buttons respond, but time/data seems wrong	Let it boot fully, then sync later through your usual setup	Time corrects after sync
Screen shows pairing prompt on first start	Finish setup on the watch, then pair when ready	Normal watch face after setup

Button basics that make power-on easier

The Instinct uses physical buttons, and each one has two personalities: a press and a hold. Knowing what CTRL does reduces almost every “why won’t it respond?” moment.

CTRL is the power and light button

CTRL controls the backlight, opens the controls menu when held, and handles power. If you’re pressing other buttons while trying to turn it on, you’re usually making it harder than it needs to be.

A clean “hold” beats repeated pressing

Repeated short presses can do two unhelpful things:

• They may only toggle the backlight if the watch is already on.
• They can miss the hold threshold needed to start the boot cycle.

When you want the watch on, hold CTRL steadily until you see a response.

What to do right after it turns on

Once the screen is alive, give it a moment to settle. A fresh boot can take a bit longer if the battery was near empty or the watch hasn’t been used in a while.

Check these three things first

• Battery level: if it’s low, keep it on the charger until it’s comfortable.
• Time: if it’s off, syncing later usually fixes it.
• Buttons: tap through a menu screen to confirm everything responds normally.

If you see a pairing screen on first start, that’s normal. The watch may be ready to link with Garmin Connect during initial setup.

How to turn the watch off and back on without drama

Once you’ve got it working, it helps to know the calm way to power cycle it the next time it acts up. Garmin’s restart method is simple: hold CTRL until it turns off, then hold CTRL to turn it on again.

This is handy when:

• The watch face is laggy.
• GPS takes longer than usual to start an activity.
• Notifications stop showing up.
• Syncing feels stuck.

It’s the same move you’d use on a laptop: restart first, then troubleshoot deeper if the issue stays.

Button actions cheat sheet

If you want a single place to glance and move on, here’s a compact cheat sheet for the actions used during power-on and basic recovery. It’s written to match what your hands do on the watch.

Button	Press	Hold
CTRL (top-left)	Backlight on/off	Power on/off, controls menu
GPS (top-right)	Open activity list	Save a location (model/settings vary)
BACK/SET (bottom-right)	Go back one screen	Open clock-related options

If it still won’t turn on

If you’ve tried a proper charge window and a CTRL hold restart cycle, and you still see no life at all, you’re likely dealing with one of these:

• A charging clip that isn’t making contact.
• A cable or power adapter that’s failing under load.
• A battery that can’t hold charge anymore.
• Physical damage to contacts or internal hardware.

At that point, your best next step is controlled testing: try a known-good cable, a different wall adapter, and a different outlet. If there’s still no charging icon and no boot response from a long CTRL hold, the watch may need service through Garmin’s official channels.

On the bright side, most “dead Instinct” moments end far earlier than that. A steady charge plus a proper CTRL hold brings a lot of watches right back.