Start here. Press the close button and watch the whole trip. Where the door stops, and what it does next, tells you which of the eight problems below you have. A door that reverses before the floor is a different fault from one that reverses at the floor. A door that does nothing is different again. And a door that hangs crooked is not a troubleshooting job at all. Find the one that matches, and skip the rest.
1. It Starts Down, Then Reverses Before the Floor
This is the most common reason a garage door will not close, and it is almost never a broken opener. The opener saw something in the safety beam. 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 breaks while the door is closing, the door goes back up. Most LiftMaster units also blink the overhead light ten times to tell you why.
Look at both sensors. Each should show a steady light. If one is off or flickering, check in this order: something sitting in the beam, like a recycling bin, a broom, or a bag of mulch; a lens filmed over with dust, pollen, or a spider web; and a bracket knocked a few degrees out of line. Wipe both lenses with a dry cloth and nudge the loose bracket by hand until both lights hold steady. Then close the door and wave a broom handle through the beam halfway down. It should reverse. That is the test that matters.
2. It Only Closes While You Hold the Wall Button
Press and hold the wall console button, and most openers built since the 1990s will close the door anyway, slowly, for as long as you keep holding. That is a deliberate safety override. The opener assumes a person is standing at the button watching the door. If holding the button works and a single press does not, you have confirmed the sensors are the fault.
Use it to get the house closed tonight. Stand there and watch the door all the way to the concrete, and keep kids, pets, and cars clear. Then fix the sensors. If both sensor lights stay dark after you clean and realign them, the wire between the sensors and the motor head is damaged or a sensor has failed. Staples through that wire, a mower that clipped it, and corroded terminals are the usual culprits.
3. It Touches the Floor, Then Goes Back Up
Here the door completes its trip and then reverses anyway. The opener thinks the floor is an obstacle. Its down travel limit is set a hair too far, so it keeps pushing after the bottom seal meets the slab, feels the resistance, and does what it was built to do.
Ask what changed. A new, thicker bottom seal will do it. So will a rubber mat, a threshold seal glued to the slab, or a garage floor that was just coated. On older openers the limit simply drifts. The fix is a small adjustment of the down travel limit at the motor head, followed by the reversal test: lay a 2x4 flat on the floor under the door and close it. The door must reverse when it hits the board. If it does not, the adjustment is not finished.
4. It Stops at the Same Spot Every Time
A door that reverses or stalls at the same height on every attempt is hitting resistance in the hardware, not the sensors. Stand beside the track and watch that spot while the door runs. Look for a dent or bend in the track, a roller that has stopped spinning and is sliding instead, a cracked hinge, or a track bracket pulling away from the jamb.
Do not turn up the close force to push through it. That dial is what stops the door on a car hood or a person, and cranking it up hides the problem while the opener drives the door harder into a bent track. Bent tracks and seized rollers are how doors end up off track. If a roller has already jumped out, see off-track garage door repair before running the door again.
5. Nothing Happens When You Press Close
No movement from any button usually means the opener has been told not to move. Check the wall console for a lock button or vacation mode. On many LiftMaster consoles a blinking light on the console means lock is on, and it blocks every remote and keypad until you turn it off. Hold the lock button for a couple of seconds to release it.
If only the remote fails, replace its battery before anything else. If nothing responds and the opener shows no lights, check the ceiling outlet and the GFCI on the garage circuit. On this coast that GFCI trips after heavy rain more often than people expect. Our garage door opener troubleshooting guide covers the full power, gear, and remote checklist.
6. It Will Not Stay Closed
A door that closes and then creeps up a few inches is a different fault. On an opener, the usual cause is a force or limit setting that makes the opener reverse slightly after contact. On a door with the opener disconnected, a door that lifts itself off the floor has springs wound too tight for its weight, often after a replacement spring was sized wrong. An over-wound torsion spring is under enormous tension. Do not try to adjust it yourself.
7. It Is Crooked, Jerky, or Much Louder Than Usual
Stop pressing the button. A door that closes with one side lower than the other, shudders on the way down, or slams the last foot has a failed spring or a cable that has come off its drum. The opener is trying to lower weight the springs are no longer holding, and each attempt risks kinking the track or bending a panel. Look for slack cable beside either track and for a gap in the torsion spring above the door. Either one means garage door cable repair or broken garage door spring repair, and the door stays where it is until then.
8. How to Close It Tonight, Safely
If the door is stuck open and the house is exposed, you can usually close it by hand. With the door fully open, pull the red emergency release cord toward the door. Then lower the door by its handle, keeping your fingers out of the panel joints, and lock it with the slide lock on the inside of the door if it has one. A healthy door moves with modest effort and stays where you leave it.
If the door is heavy, drops faster than you can control, or was crooked before you started, leave it open. A door with a broken spring can come down at full weight, which on a double steel door is two hundred pounds or more. Keep people clear and make it a 24/7 emergency garage door repair call. We answer at any hour.
What It Usually Costs
Most won't-close calls are small. Sensor realignment, travel-limit and force adjustment, and sensor or wire replacement all sit inside a typical opener repair of $150 to $350. Putting a door back on its track typically runs $150 to $250, or $250 to $400 when a cable is involved. A broken spring runs $250 to $500 depending on the spring and its cycle rating, detailed in our garage door spring replacement cost guide. The diagnostic is waived with any repair, and every repair is $50 off.
The Coastal Version of This Problem
Two things make won't-close calls more common here than inland. First, the sun. A west-facing garage with open marsh or a long driveway in front of it gets low afternoon light straight into the receiving sensor, and the door refuses to close between about four o'clock and sunset, then works fine after dark. The fix costs nothing. Swap the sending and receiving sensors so the receiver sits on the shaded side, or fit a short sun shield over it. Second, salt. Sensor terminals and the thin wire running to them corrode, and a corroded connection works on dry days and fails on humid ones. If your door only refuses to close on muggy mornings, that is where to look, and it is one of the things a garage door tune-up checks.
When to Stop and Call
Call instead of testing further if the door is crooked, a spring or cable is visibly broken, the track is bent, or the door reverses with clean, aligned sensors and a clear path. And if the problem is the other direction, start with our garage door won't open checklist.
We have run this coast from one shop on Rose Drive in Brunswick since 1994. Written quote before work, and the quote you approve is the invoice. Same-day is normal for garage door repair in Brunswick, garage door repair in Savannah, and garage door repair in Jacksonville. Full service detail is on our garage door repair page.