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.
My garage door works intermittently when using the car remote. It will not close about every 10th or 12th time when using button on rear view mirror. The door starts down, stops, then opens again. The lights blink 2 times then stops. I need to get out and use the wall button to close the door. Alignment LEDs are on. I’ve unplugged the motor. When I’ve tried the hand remote, it works fine, so far. Any ideas?
Ed,
Sounds like there’s a short in the opener itself. Either the board or wiring should be tested. Have you opened the opener up to inspect for loose or a burned part or board?
-RR
I have replaced the batteries, unplugged the unit and tried almost everything I have read to no avail. My remotes (both) will not work if the light bulbs are on. If I remove them the remote will close the door every time for weeks but as soon as I put any bulb in there it is hit or miss, most times miss. It opens fine it just will never close if the lights are ON. If I shut them off with the switch or wait them out it will close – if they are on the remote does nothing? All seems in working order other than that – Craftsman 1/2 hp. I have been suggested that my board might be going out? No other suggestions seem to work for me — HELP
HC,
Is your outside garage door wall unit battery operated? Most of the time they are hard wired. Which batteries did you change? In a remote or is the outside wall mounted garage door opener battery operated? If it is battery operated, it may be bad and needs replaced. You could try resetting the door to be sure.
-RR
Our garage door opener will open and close from the inside wall button, and from our car remote. The garage door will close with the outside wall unit but not open. We have changed the battery. Please help us with problem.
Kurt,
Please supply us with the make and model of your garage door opener. Have you tried to adjust your garage door opener on the opener itself? There should be a number of switches. Consult your owners manual since we do not know what make your garage door opener is.
-RR
My neighbor and I are having the exact same problem as Nancy. Where the door does not work if the lights are on. Reset of the garage door opener did not help.
Nancy,
It may be an intermittent issue. You can try unplugging it or possibly just turn off the breaker in the breaker box and then you will not need a ladder. The control module in the garage door opener may be on the verge of going bad. The reset should fix it if the opener is still working properly. See what happens after you reset the garage door opener and then let us know your findings.
-RR
I took the bulb out and it worked. (opened and closed with the remote). Put the bulb back in and it worked. tried it several times. So I don’t get what the deal is.
Yesterday I changed the bulb to see it that would solve the problem. I put in the rough service 60 watt garage door opener bulb. It worked 3 times in a row so I thought the problem was solved. Later in the day when I tried it it did not work again.
It is a Craftsman 1/2 HP. Light stays on around 4 min. Remote is Craftsman. Remote is not new. Two days ago I tried replacing the batteries. Replaced them in one remote (I have 2). That did not make any difference.
I did not try the unplugging idea, don’t have a ladder to get up there. Should I still try that?
Nancy,
As a test to see what may be causing the issue, take the light bulb completely out and see if the garage door opens no matter what. There is most likely a timing issue in the garage door opener. Do you know how long the light on your garage door opener stays on before it turns off? 1 to 4 minutes or so? We do not know what type of garage door opener you have, but you can try resetting it by unplugging it for 5 minutes and plug back in to see if that may reset it. Can you also provide the make and model of your garage door opener and the type of remote you are using? Have you recently replaced your remote?
-RR