Garage door won't open or close? Start here.

If your garage door won't open, the most likely causes are a broken spring, a disengaged opener trolley, or no power to the opener. If it won't close, it's almost always the photo-eye safety sensors. Run through the checks below before you call anyone — about half of "broken door" calls are five-minute fixes. For everything else, Door Doctor diagnoses free and repairs same-day across Southwest Florida, with a written flat-rate quote first.

The door won't open

• You heard a loud bang recently — that's the sound of a torsion spring breaking, the #1 cause. Look for a 2–3 inch gap in the coiled spring above the door. If you see one, stop: the opener is now lifting 150+ pounds of dead weight, and so would you.
• The opener hums or strains but the door barely moves — usually a broken spring too, even without the bang. Don't keep pressing the button; it burns out the motor.
• The opener runs but nothing happens — the trolley is likely disengaged. If the red emergency cord has been pulled (common after an outage), re-engage it: with the door fully closed, pull the cord toward the door and run the opener until it clicks in.
• Nothing at all, no lights — check the outlet the opener is plugged into and the breaker. Garage GFCI circuits trip in Florida thunderstorms constantly.
• Opens with the wall button but not the remote — that's an opener accessory issue, not the door; see our opener troubleshooting guide.

The door won't close

Nine times out of ten this is the photo-eye safety sensors — the little lenses about six inches off the floor on each side of the opening. When they can't see each other, the door refuses to close or reverses immediately, and the opener light usually flashes. Wipe both lenses with a soft cloth, check that both LED indicator lights are on steady (a blinking one means misalignment — gently bend the bracket until it's solid), and look for a cut or pinched wire. Two Southwest Florida specials: late-afternoon sun glare can blind a west-facing sensor at the same time every day, and love-bug season coats lenses in a film that reads as an obstruction. Full sensor detail is in the opener & sensor guide.

The door is stuck halfway or looks crooked

A door that stops partway, hangs lower on one side, or has visibly jumped its track should not be operated again — each cycle bends more track and can drop the door. This is the one symptom with no DIY chapter: leave it where it is and have the track and cables repaired. Off-track repairs typically run $150–$400, far less than the damage a few more button presses can do.

The door opens (or closes) by itself

• A transmitter is stuck — a remote wedged in a car console or a keypad button held down by grit will replay endlessly. Pull the batteries from each remote one at a time to find the culprit.
• Keypad moisture — after a storm, a wet keypad can short and fire on its own; dry it out or replace it.
• Travel limits drifting — a door that closes then re-opens is usually hitting its down-limit early and "thinks" it struck something; the limits need adjustment.
• Phantom openings that persist after the checks above are worth a service call — occasionally a neighbor's remote on an old fixed-code opener is the culprit, and a modern rolling-code unit ends it.

What each noise means

• Squealing or grinding along the sides — dry or worn rollers; the classic salt-air symptom and a cheap fix
• Rattling that shakes the ceiling — loose hardware; a tune-up tightens the whole system
• Grinding from the opener head — a stripped drive gear; stop using it and have the opener serviced
• A single loud bang, then a heavy door — a spring let go; see the top of this guide

When to stop and call

Anything involving a spring, a cable, or a door off its track is professional-only work — those parts are under extreme tension and cause serious injuries every year. Same for a door that's visibly crooked or free-falls when the trolley is disengaged. Our diagnosis is free, the quote is a written flat rate before any work, and most repairs across Lee, Collier, Charlotte & Sarasota counties happen the same day, 24/7.