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.
William,
Yes we have had others with the same issue of LED bulbs interfering with the Garage door remote opening and shutting.
Try putting the older style bulbs back in and see if the problem stops.
-RR
I have just started to have this problem about a month ago. The only changes I have made is I put an LED light bulb in the garage door opener. That’s about the time my opener started acting up. Could the LED bulb be interfering with the signal from the remotes? I have started to replace all of the bulbs in my house with the new LED bulbs which do not have the elements in them like the old bulbs. Have anyone else put LED bulbs in their house or garage door opener and started having problems with it opening with the remotes in your car (Built-in or portable remotes)?
Steve McMillen,
You may have some interference causing the remotes to not work “all of a sudden”.
Are you near any military bases?
Any new purchases of electronics with remotes?
A new baby monitor?
A new computer router?
Cable company doing any installation or service work near your home?
If you have neighbors with garage door openers are they having any problems also?
Have you tried the door opener remote with the car engine turned off?
It is a possibility that there some interference coming from the engine.
Let us know what you can find.
-RR
All of a sudden my “built-in remote” on both of our cars will not open garage door. The door will open with inside remote on wall. Any ideas?
Khai,
Can you tell us the brand of garage door opener and the model number? Did someone possibly move the switches on the opener and change the code? Check the opener itself to see if the sensor and or switches are working and in the proper setting.
-RR
My garage door will not open with any 3 remotes I have for it, the door was working fine one day and than just stopped, the next it is, It is a Steel-line garage door, the door will open if i press the button on the box no problems at all. But even when i touch the remote up against the receiving antenna it will not work any suggestions would really be so much appreciated thanks.
The LED bulb ended up being my problem too! Took it off and my remotes worked from far away again.
I had the same problem – suddenly my remotes didn’t work unless I was very close to the garage door and sometimes not at all.
I finally saw somewhere that LED bulbs can cause interference. I realized I had recently replaced a burned out bulb on the opener with an LED bulb. I removed it and it worked perfectly again.
Wanted to offer this as something to think about:
Been having an intermittent problem with my garage door lift master unit. Wall switch always worked, but either remote or keypad only worked occasionally. Interference was mentioned above… When our new energy efficient LED light bulbs (in the room above the garage) are on, they are the source of the problem. When the led lights are on it doesn’t work, if they are off, both remotes and the keypad work every time.
Rod,
If the garage door remote opens the door 10 times out of 12 tries with your remote… Change the battery in your remote… check to be sure you are close enough for the signal to be received… The flashing lights usually mean a safety issue with the led lights not being fully aligned or they were disrupted. Check the alignment of the LED lights… If that does not fix the issue, let us know the model of your garage door opener as the blinking light and how many times it blinks gives you an error that tells you what is wrong with the garage door and or opener. Give us make and model of your garage door opener.
-RR