Answers
Why your garage door will not close
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 · Written by the Professional Garage Concepts service team
Short answer
Why won't my garage door close?
A garage door that reverses or refuses to close is most often a photo eye out of alignment or blocked, a travel limit that drifted, or debris in the track. Check the safety sensor lights first. If the door will not close and the springs look broken, stop using the opener and call.
Start with the safety sensors, because it is usually them
Two photo eyes sit about six inches off the floor on either side of the opening. One sends an infrared beam, the other receives it, and if the beam is broken the opener refuses to close. On most LiftMaster and Chamberlain units the sending eye shows a steady amber light and the receiving eye a steady green. If either light is off, flickering, or blinking, the sensors are the problem. Look for a bike wheel, a trash bin, a cobweb, a spider, or a leaf across the beam. Then look at whether one bracket got bumped out of alignment, which happens constantly. Loosen the wing nut, sight the eye at its partner, and tighten it when the light goes steady.
Then the travel limits
The opener has a down limit that tells it where the floor is. If the limit drifted, the opener drives the door into the floor, sees resistance it did not expect, decides it hit an obstruction, and reverses. The tell is a door that goes all the way down, touches, and immediately comes back up with no sensor light problem. On most units there are two adjustment screws or two buttons on the motor head marked up and down. Small changes, a quarter turn at a time, and test between each one.
Track, rollers and anything the door is dragging
Look up the vertical track for a dent, a bulge, or a bolt that has backed out. Look at the rollers for one that has come out of the track or seized. Look at the floor line for a build-up of dirt or a threshold seal that has curled. A door that closes most of the way and then stops at the same spot every time is telling you exactly where the obstruction is. Do not force it past that point with the opener.
The lock, the remote and the wall console
Many wall consoles have a lock or vacation button that disables remote operation. If the wall console closes the door but the remotes do not, check it. If the light on the motor head blinks a fixed pattern when you press the button, the manual for your model translates that pattern into a fault code, and it is worth ninety seconds to look it up before calling anyone.
When to stop and call
Stop if you see a gap in the spring coil above the door. Stop if a cable is loose, frayed, or off the drum. Stop if the door is visibly crooked in the opening or one side is higher than the other. Stop if the door came off the track. All four of those are load-bearing failures and all four get worse fast when someone keeps pressing the button. A garage door weighs between 150 and 400 pounds and it is held up by parts under tension. We run same-day and 24/7 emergency dispatch across DFW for exactly these.
- Visible gap in the torsion spring above the door: stop, call
- Loose, frayed or unwound cable: stop, call
- Door crooked or off the track: stop, call
- Door slams shut rather than lowering: stop, call
- Sensors, limits and track debris: safe to check yourself
Answers
Why won't my garage door close: follow-up questions
Still stuck? Call (817) 381-6173 and talk to someone who does this every day.
My sensor lights are both on but the door still won't close. Now what?
Steady lights mean the beam is intact, so look at the travel limits next, then at the track for an obstruction. If the door reverses immediately on touching the floor with no obstruction present, it is the down limit or the force setting, and both are adjustable at the motor head.
Can I just hold the wall button to force it closed?
On most openers holding the wall console button overrides the sensors and closes the door. Use that only to secure the building, never as a fix, and never when children or pets are in the garage. The sensors exist because doors have killed people. Get the actual cause resolved.
The door closes but then opens right back up. Why?
That is the opener deciding it hit something. Either the down limit is set past the floor, the down force is set too sensitive, or something really is in the way. Work through those three in that order.
How much does this repair usually cost?
Sensor realignment and limit adjustment are often handled inside a standard service visit. Parts like rollers, hinges and a bottom bracket are inexpensive. We give you a written diagnosis and a price before any work starts, so you approve the number first.
Get the number for your actual job
Call (817) 381-6173 or send the form. We put the price in writing before the work starts, and there is no travel surcharge anywhere in DFW.