Your garage door won’t open when you use your remote control from your car in the driveway? If your garage door opener is working properly in every other way but NOT receiving the signal from your remote when the garage door is closed, there are a few things you can do. (If your garage door button on the wall of your garage opens your garage door, then we know the door is working and must consider this as a communication issue.)
We are going to assume there is a communication problem from using your remote from outside with the garage door shut. There may be something interfering with the signal or possibly something else.
First make sure the batteries are in working order in your remote control. If so, go inside your garage with the remote you had in your car, and with the garage closed, test the remote to see if the door opens. If not then your remote is most likely broken and you need to replace it. We will assume this since the button on the garage door wall opened the door. Try another remote you know that works. Test it from inside the garage and then test it from outside the garage.
How to fix a Garage Door Opener – Remote not working
If the remote works from inside the garage but not from the outside, then most likely the antenna wire on the garage door opener itself may be damaged, broken, or not in visible range. Check to be sure the antenna is attached and if it is not hanging down from the unit, move the antenna so it can catch the beam being sent by the remote. Please note that the antenna on some garage door openers is encased inside the unit itself.
Garage Door Opener Antenna Extension
Another issue could be that there is some sort of interference from different wireless devices in use near your area. If this is the case then find the antenna mount point and add a wire to it to make it longer. If this does not work there are other solutions. There are extenders that allow you to send the signal from outside the house and it runs by a wire to the garage opener unit.
There are reliable units called universal garage door opener receivers. These are an optional add on unit if you have issues opening your garage door from the outside. These units are used because they improve the range of your remote. As most garage door remotes work only about 20 feet from the opener, this unit will make it so you can open your garage from up to 100 yards away. This unit is called the Liftmaster 850LM Universal Gate and Garage Door Opener Receiver and is available for right around $40 dollars and WILL solve your garage door opening issues.
There are now systems that link into your home WIFI wireless that let you open your garage door with your smartphone.
How To Open Your Garage Door With Your iPhone or Android Phone
Do you know of an easier method to allow a remote control to open a garage door with interference problems? Please let us know by leaving a comment below.
Door will not open with remotes. It first would not work with one then not the other. I replaced the batteries and still nothing. I went inside the garage and hit the button to the remote and the red light on the receiver blinked. the door will go up with the wall mount button.
Thank you. We don’t have a manual and we don’t even have the cover of the opener !!!!! As a matter of fact we aren’t even sure how old it is!!! It came with the house “as is’ when we bought it. We tried everything we could think of (TG for you tube) and tried your suggestions. I think we will just suck it up and get a new one, its at least 8 years old and I really think closer to over 15! I do appreciate your suggestions! Thank you
Diane,
There is an issue with the garage door opener on the garage ceiling. May have a safety timer or timing issue. Troubleshoot using your manual or a YouTube video. May need a part replaced or possibly new garage door opener.
-RR
The green lights on each sensor is on, it appears the signal is being received. The door still won’t work if the opener light it on.
Diane,
There are 2 sensors at the bottom of the garage door. One mounted near each track. They point to each other creating an invisible safety line. If they are a little off the problem of the door not shutting when light is still on can occur. Here is a video on How to Check Alignment of Garage Door Sensors.
-RR
Thank you for your speedy reply. How do you check the alignment???
Diane,
Next time it won’t close when the light is on, HOLD the wall button depressed. If that closes the door, it is the safety system causing it. Hold the wall button down and this will override the safety system. The safety system thinks it should not close because of misaligned safety sensors. They are easily bumped out of alignment. Make sure they are aligned and try to shut the garage door when the light is still on. If that does not work, turn the dial on the side of your garage opener (attached to ceiling of garage) in the direction indicated to increase the closing force of the door. That should fix it. If not then let us know and we can give more suggestions.
-RR
My garage door FOB will not work when the garage door opener light is on. If the light is off the key FOB works. When the light is on, ie after opening the door, we are unable to close it using the FOB. If we leave the car, go into the garage and turn off the opener light from the wall mounted remote the key FOB then works. This is a new situation.
Nicole,
If none of the remotes you have program. You should be able to change some settings on the garage door opener assembly (hanging from your garage ceiling) to renew the codes. There are switches and or lights on the garage door motor assembly that should let you change the settings and all should work after that once you reprogram your remotes. So, if all your remotes do not work, then more than likely the settings on the garage door opener motor assembly has been possibly changed or mistakenly altered and needs to be reset and or changed. Reset or change the settings on the garage door motor assembly, then reprogram your handheld remotes and everything SHOULD work.
-RR
My remote won’t open my chamberlain garage door opener. Here’s my situation. I have 2 chamberlain units for 2 separate doors. One works fine. The other will only open using either the wall button or the outside key pad. We cannot get a remote to program. We have tried the 3 button remote we have for the other door, which we know works since it will open the other door, but it won’t program. I have bought a new remote, which won’t program. I have replaced the battery in an older remote, which did not work. And my car ‘home’ button won’t program either. I keep reading about interferences with led lights and other electronics, but I know the unit can be programmed using the learn button because the keypad outside is programmed and the other unit works just fine. We have lived in our house for 9 months now and the unit worked up to about 4 months ago and just stopped. What in the works is going on?