Pause/Unpause would work, but I suspect there's a more elegant solution.

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If you mean hitting the 'start/stop/ instead of 'lap' button, that's too annoying. You get that prompt about "Resume, save, etc." every time you hit that button, and then have to hit it again to get going.

Kinda surprised this is so hard to do. Seems like something a lot of people would want.

I understand your frustration. It took me a bunch of swims before I either hit the lap button (missed it sometimes) or didn't accidentally double-tap it on my Fenix 5. So, I'd end up with the same problem you're seeing.

The biggest problem that caused me to get off on from the plan is that when you setup the multi-step (a swim interval then a rest x times), the last swim interval doesn't have a rest for some reason (a bug in the software as far as I'm concerned). So, now I always add an appropriate length rest after the multi-step and that seems to work the way I want it to work.

The way it works now is that I only have to hit the lap button at the end of each interval. The rest time will then start and at the end of the rest the next interval will automatically start.

I'm not sure if this helps you any but I thought I share my experience and how I use it.

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

That's how mine is currently setup. For the most part, it works fine, but as mentioned, it's super annoying when once every few workouts, you're getting wiped out from the hard efforts, not thinking or seeing straight, and then hit 'lap' when in you missed one before, and thus do your interval during the 'rest'.

If the watch would just record any distance swum doing the rest portion, everything would be fine. It would also allow easy incorporation of stuff like 'swim 100 super easy after a hard z5 interval' without so many button presses.

Under data screens, I have rest screen turned on. That means whenever I hit the lap button after the 1st interval it goes into rest mode. I hit it again when I start a new interval. I haven't tried turning off the rest screen...maybe that will do the trick for you.

Are you doing structured workouts loaded into the Garmin?
I am not quite getting the issue. I don't load swim workouts into the Garmin hence it is just simply hitting the lap button every time I come in for the rest interval and then again as I push off.
There is an auto pause feature I think in the 945 similar to the Swim 2?

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I just want the swim recording screen to never go to the 'black background' of the rest interval, since during that interval the watch is not measuring distance. Again, the problem is that if you're gassed and mix up your button timing, you go off doing an all-out 400 hoping to get a good time, and the watch is actually not recording the distance, just the time, so the entire distance is missing from your final total. (So your workout will read 2000yds instead of 2400 by the end.)

Yes, you can backcalculate your pace and correct the distance postprocessing, but it's annoying, and as well, sometimes you make an on -the-fly change to the interval, for example, if you find yourself racing the person in the lane next to you (yeah, admit it you do it too LOL!) and thus tack on distance, but aren't sure how much you tacked on.

Again, not sure this is possible, I did searches here and online in general and couldn't find a way to do it.

A few things:
The lap screens are totally customizable, so you can have it display all sorts.
However, as soon as you hit the lap button you are in effect pausing the workout, whilst it measures rest interval etc, the only way to have it start recording distance again is to hit the lap button, unless there is an auto pause feature which the Swim2 has and I think the 945, but then you don't use the lap button at all.

Yeah, that's the problem - I do NOT want it to pause the workout when hitting lap. I want it to work like the old-school Timex Ironman watch where hitting lap just records the lap, but does NOT goes into rest mode.

Doesn't sound like it's possible, unfortunately.

This is exactly right. Just hit the lap button at the completion of your interval, then hit it again when you start your next interval. Or, let the auto pause feature take care of it.

Ok. The 'problem'. Let's say you're doing a pyramid. 100,200,300,400,300,200,100. In theory at the end of each itnerval you press lap as you touch, then lap again to restart as you set off after the rest interval. Perfect, garmin connect shows the full 1600m with the time/pace/strokes for each length and aggregated to those pyramid blocks.

But, the 'problem' is that when the fatigue comes in in teh second half you' forget' to press when you reach the end of teh 400m. So although you think you're pressing to 'start' the 300m, you are actually stopping recording, and so at the end garmin has only recorded 100, 200, 300, 400 and then 3 rest intervals and your workout total is 600m short with no data on that second half. The OP was wanting to be able to press lap and instead of it being the 'recovery - no distance - no time' if carries on recording. So the issue here is that if you do stop to faff, nip to the loo, etc, then it'll falsely record some laps, and the average time comes down.

Of course some of this would be way easier if Garmin allowed manual correction/edit of swim workout recordings. But that'll happen sometime after zwift lets you change worlds/routes without quitting....

Well I've done that a time or two, but just didn't worry about it. Or, it just didn't bother me that much. I just made a mental note to hit the button when I should.

I'm using the 920, and the button is easy to push on it. On my previous Garmin Swim watch, the button was easier to miss or not push enough. On the other hand, I thought the auto pause feature on the Swim watch worked extremely well.

In the masters class, most everyone uses the clock and doesn't use a watch. I think it's easy to make a mountain out of a molehill with swim workouts. I think of a swim workout as being fun exercise, and where one can improve their stroke and swim mechanics - which generally leads to faster times. I don't look at it so much as a tool to get me in shape for an ironman. But everyone is different with different objectives.

Hitting the lap button has just become second nature to me now....on top of that often am leading our lane so also needing to hit the finis tempo trainer beeper to sync in etc as well....

I have issues with the Garmin not tracking distance correctly when I'm going really fast. For example, it will miss the first 25 of a fast 100 or fast 50. What I do is either immediately following the interval, or just at the end of the workout, add up all the distance that it incorrectly missed and put the watch in drill mode for ~1s, then tell I did whatever the missing distance is. At the end, you will still have the same average workout pace (and TSS if Training peaks is calculating that for you).

If that doesn't work for you, you could always use drill most exclusively, which means you have to confirm the distance at the end of every interval, so you should know for sure that the watch is ready for the next interval.

One other solution I can see is to turn on auto-lap for pool swim activities and set it to whatever distance you want, like every 100, then you really only ever hit start and stop. I've never done this for pool swims but have open water swims set to auto-lap every 500m. You would get every 100, but it would include rest on the wall for some and would never see any longer intervals. It might also over-count if you wave your watch arm around while at the wall enough, like to adjust your cap or drink from a water bottle.

If you really want your device to out everything about your swim without pushing buttons every time you finish at the wall, you might have to spring for a Phlex.

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