Garage door won’t open: the common causes

By Heather Window & Door · 11 September 2026

First: did you hear a bang, at any point?

A single loud crack from the garage — sometimes days earlier, sometimes while the house was empty — is the sound of a torsion spring letting go. Afterwards the door will often not open at all, or will open a few inches and stop.

The spring is what carries the weight of the door. Without it the opener is trying to lift the whole thing on a motor sized to lift almost nothing, and the door is a genuinely heavy object held up by very little.

• Stop using the opener. Each attempt strains the rail, the gears and the cables.
• Do not try to lift the door by hand.
• Keep people and cars out of the opening, and do not park under it.
• Look, from a safe distance, for a gap in the coil of the spring on the shaft above the door. A clean break is usually visible from across the garage.

If that is what you can see, leave the door alone and call. Why springs break in batches is worth reading afterwards.

The motor runs but the door does not move

This is the most misread symptom in the trade, because a working motor sounds like a working opener. What it actually means is that the opener has lost its grip on the door, or the door cannot go anywhere.

• A broken spring The commonest cause. The opener turns, the door stays.
• The trolley is disconnected Somebody pulled the emergency release — during a power outage, or by accident — and the carriage has not been re-engaged.
• A cable off its drum One side of the door is held and the other is not, so it binds in the opening.
• The door is jammed A roller out of the track, a bent section of track, or something wedged against the door.
• Stripped drive gear Inside the opener rather than on the door — a grinding note with no movement.

None of those five is fixed by running the opener again, and four of the five get worse if you do.

Nothing happens at all

When the wall button and the remote both do nothing, work outwards from the simple things.

• Power A tripped breaker, a switched-off socket, a GFCI outlet that has popped. The opener light is a fair indicator.
• The wall lock or vacation mode Many openers and wall consoles have a lock that disables the remotes on purpose. It is easy to press without noticing.
• The remote A flat battery, or pairing that has dropped. The wall button tells you which side the problem is on.
• The safety beam Some openers refuse to run in either direction while the photo-eyes are unhappy, and signal it by blinking.
• A manual slide lock On older doors, a bar through the track. Forcing a locked door bends things.

If the wall button works and the remote does not, it is a pairing or battery question and the guide to programming a remote covers it.

If the car is shut inside

Say so on the phone. A trapped car is one of the few things that genuinely changes how a job is scheduled, and dispatch would rather hear it than work it out later.

If the door is fully closed and you understand the risk, the emergency release lets a door be lifted by hand — but only with the springs intact. On a door with a broken spring, pulling that cord takes the opener out of the equation and leaves the full weight to whoever is holding it. The manual-opening guide sets out when that is safe and when it is not.

What to tell us

• What you hear when you press the button Nothing, a click, a hum, a grinding noise, or the motor running normally.
• Whether you ever heard a bang Even if it was last week.
• Whether the door has moved at all Not at all, a few inches, or crooked.
• Whether a car is inside And whether you need it today.
• The address and a photograph One of the whole opening from a safe distance.

Sources

1. DASMA — Technical Data Sheets (Door & Access Systems Manufacturers Association)
2. Amarr — residential garage door FAQs

All sources read 8 September 2026. Linked so you can check them rather than take our word for it.

Written from the manufacturers’ own published guidance — every source is linked above.

Describe it however makes sense to you

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However you describe it is enough — no part names needed. The visit and the written estimate cost you nothing, and nothing starts until you approve the number.

• However you describe it is enough. No part names needed.
• The written estimate is free. Nothing owed if you pass.
• Nobody starts the repair until you approve the number.