Why Your Garage Door Is Opening by Itself and What to Do About It

When you close a garage, you expect it to stay shut—which is why it can be so alarming if a garage door keeps going back up. There are a number of potential culprits—like a faulty garage door opener or crossed wires—and failing to tend to them can put your setup at risk of more severe damages that could lead to costly repairs or replacements in the long run. 

Find out what’s causing your garage door to open by itself and learn how to prevent it from happening, like scheduling routine garage inspections and more. 

1. Overlapping Signals

Wirelessly controlled garage doors are designed to be sensitive to signals and may even pick up those from your neighbor or a wireless radio. If you suspect this to be the cause of your garage door problem, talk to your neighbors and ask them to open and close their garage door. If yours opens at the same time, you’ve found the issue. 

If you suspect one of your neighbors has an identical garage door opener frequency, try changing the opener code or frequency to fix interference with your garage door opener. Adjusting these can also stop interference from CB radios, police radios, radio stations, and radio towers.

The process will vary depending on your garage door opener’s make and model, so read the instructions or contact the manufacturer directly if you have questions.

2. Blocked Safety Sensors

Modern garage door openers feature safety sensors in the motor, on each side of the garage door, and mounted on the tracks. These sensors tell the garage door to open when they detect an obstacle in its path.

They operate by shooting a light beam across the door. If the beam is interrupted, the door will not shut. It’s a great feature for protecting darting pets or wandering children, but several disruptions can trigger the garage door’s auto-reverse mechanism to kick in. 

Clean your garage thoroughly, removing any items that could get in the way of the safety sensors. Move any boxes that may be in the sensors’ line of sight and dispose of accumulated leaves, snow, or ice around the door. These safety sensors are extremely sensitive and can be activated by the slightest detection—preventing your garage door from closing as a result.

If you suspect that the sensor or affiliated wires are bent or damaged, you may need to replace them.

3. Misaligned Safety Sensors

Similar to a blocked safety sensor, misaligned safety sensors trigger the reverse mechanism of your electric garage door opener. The sensors, located on both sides of the door, need to connect and align properly to shoot a beam of light across the door, which lets it close completely. 

If the beam cuts off or there isn’t one solid beam, that could mean your sensors are misaligned and out of whack. It’s almost like your sensors are avoiding eye contact. This tells your garage door opener that something is in the way even when there isn’t.

You should adjust the sensors, but you’ll need to loosen their screws to get the sensors moving freely. When realigning them, a light will appear on most devices to let you know you’ve been successful.

4. Stuck Control Buttons

Most modern garage doors feature a control button mounted inside that could become stuck if it’s old, dirty, or damaged. It’s common for a garage door button to become stuck in the “pushed” position, causing the door to open and shut continuously. If your door seems to be in constant motion, it is likely caused by a stuck control button or loose wire connections inside the button housing.

Clean the button of any debris and dust, and check on its overall responsiveness. If that doesn’t fix the problem, grab a screwdriver and open it up. 

Make sure there are no issues with the wiring surrounding the button. Look for bare spots in the insulation and anywhere along the run of the wire. If the wire looks iffy, you should replace the control button or contact a professional electrician near you.

5. Frayed Sensor or Wall Control Button Wires

Both the sensors and command centers are equipped with wires that power an automatic garage door, and even slight damage to them can cause issues like a door opening on its own. Check the wiring of both of these elements and repair any wires with signs of fraying, bites from pests like mice, or piercing from a nail or staple, as all of these can cause your system as a whole to malfunction. Not comfortable rewiring on your own? Find out who fixes garage doors in your area and hire them to do it instead. 

Photo: Tarasenko Andrey / Shutterstock

6. Incorrect Limit Settings

Garage door openers often include many tweakable options that can be adjusted. Two settings that could stop your garage door from properly functioning are the open limit setting and the closed limit setting.

These settings tell your garage door how far up the track it needs to go before it’s fully open and how far down it needs to go before it’s closed. When the door reaches one of these limit settings, it stops. Incorrect limits can be the culprit behind garage door issues, especially if you’ve noticed the door stopping before it reaches the floor or ceiling. 

You can adjust your limit settings. However, the process varies depending on your garage door opener’s make and model. You’ll likely encounter a pair of limit switch adjustment screws next to the garage door opener’s motor mechanism. Grab a flathead screwdriver and turn the up limit screw clockwise to raise it at a rate of three inches per turn. Perform the same action to the down limit screw. Keep adjusting these limit screws until the garage door operates normally.

7. Garage Wheels Binding on The Tracks

Binding is when the garage door gets stuck or jammed when closing, often causing the garage door to open automatically. Binding often happens if the garage door isn’t installed correctly or the trim is installed too close to the door. 

Although less common, binding could also be caused by damaged garage door parts, like wheel rust, or a bent or shifted track.

If the problem is due to a bad garage door installation, you’ll need to hire a garage pro to fix the issue. If you caught this problem quickly, you may still be under warranty and not have to pay out of pocket.

If you notice rust or a bent track, you could use a lubricant or install new rollers. 

8. Malfunctioning Circuit Board

Garage opener circuit boards can malfunction over time, resulting in a garage door that closes on its own. If your garage door is closing on its own but doesn’t seem to be opening on its own, that could indicate a problem with the opener’s logic board or the circuitry inside of the motor. Another clue the circuitry is to blame is when the door’s lights begin flashing for no reason. 

In theory, you could repair minor circuit board problems without the aid of a professional. For example, resoldering a loose connection would not be too difficult. However, it may prove frustrating for a casual DIYer to diagnose the issue within the circuitry.

If you are not well-versed in the inner workings of logic boards, your best bet will be to replace the garage door opener itself. 

9. Faulty Garage Door Opener

An opener is the brains of your entire garage door system, so if it’s not working, you’ll definitely see some issues with the opening and closing process. A faulty opener could be caused by an issue with the wiring within the opener or the electricity running to it. 

Make sure the opener is plugged in because, over time, opening and closing your door can shift the opener enough to loosen the plug. You should also check if it’s plugged in and that it’s connected to a power source.

There could also be a tripped circuit, so find your breaker box and check if it needs a re-set.

Finally, if the garage door is not opening with the remote, try replacing the batteries before you do anything more time-consuming or expensive.

10. Damaged Electrical Circuits

If you’ve double- and triple-checked the above issues and found that none of them are causing your garage door to open by itself, the problem can likely be traced back to the circuit board inside the motor. A circuit board can malfunction for a couple of reasons, like a tripped breaker or because of a bad storm that knocks out the power in your home or neighborhood.  

In these cases, attempting a DIY repair is not advised because of the potential risks involved with electrical work. Instead, hire an electrician to make the necessary fixes. Before you know it, they’ll have your garage door running as good as new.

Troubleshooting a Garage Door DIY vs. Hiring a Pro

If you’re still having issues with your opener, even after all these troubleshooting tips, you should hire a local garage door repair pro. This can also be a good route if you’re not very handy or don’t have the time to troubleshoot.

When you hire a pro, replacing a garage door opener costs $380 on average but often ranges between $220 and $540. What you’ll pay depends on the complexity of the problem. For example, a remote repair will be much more affordable than replacing a circuit board or the entire track.