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Garage Door Goes Up but Won't Go Down: What's Stopping It
A garage door that opens fine but won't go down, or that reverses the moment it starts closing, is almost always the opener protecting itself or you: a blocked safety sensor, a close-force setting that is too sensitive, or a down-travel limit that is set wrong. This guide walks through the checks in the order that actually finds the cause.
Lights flash 5 times often a blocked sensor
Stops, same spot often the down-limit
Never disable or bypass a sensor
Sourced Chamberlain, LiftMaster and CPSC
Why does an opener refuse to close the door?
Modern openers are built to stop or reverse rather than keep pushing, because federal rules since 1993 require it.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s 1993 rule requires every opener made after January 1, 1993 to include one of two entrapment-protection methods: an external sensor, such as a photo-eye pair, that detects an obstruction without contact, or a constant-contact wall button that has to be held down the whole time the door closes, reversing the door to full open the moment it is released. Chamberlain support describes the everyday version of the same behavior: if the door contacts an obstruction while closing, it reverses, the opener beeps, and the lights flash five times. So when a door won't go down, the opener is not broken by default, it is doing what it was built to do. The question is what it thinks the obstruction or fault is.
Three checks, in order
Before anything else, run these three checks. Where the door stops, and whether the wall button works, point straight to the cause.
Are the safety sensors blocked or misaligned?
This is the most common cause, and Chamberlain support lists it first: check that the two photo-eye sensors near the bottom of the tracks are aligned. They sit a few inches off the floor, facing each other, and each needs an unbroken line of sight to the other.
What points here: the door reverses right after touching the floor, or refuses to move down at all and the opener light blinks, but the door closes fully with a wall-mounted constant-contact button held down the entire time. That second detail matters. The constant-contact button is the CPSC's fallback method precisely because it does not depend on the sensors, so if holding it closes the door normally, the opener and the motor are fine and the sensors are the problem.
What to check, without touching the wiring: look for a solid or blinking LED on each sensor eye (the exact pattern varies by brand, so check the light against your opener's manual). Make sure nothing, including a stored bike, a hose reel or a shifted box, sits in the beam path between them. Wipe dust or cobwebs off both lenses. Confirm the brackets have not been bumped or rotated, which points both eyes off-line. If the sensors look aligned and clean and the fault continues, the sensor unit or its wiring may have failed, which is a repair, not a cleaning job.
Is the close-force setting too sensitive?
Every opener has a force setting that controls how much resistance it will push through before deciding it hit something and reversing. LiftMaster's support documentation on adjusting travel and force limits covers this as a separate setting from the travel limit itself.
What points here: the door reverses partway down, not right at the floor, and nothing is visibly blocking the sensors or the door's path. A door that has become harder to move, from a failing spring, dry rollers or a track that has gone slightly out of square, will trip a force setting that used to be fine. In that case the force setting is not really the cause, it is correctly catching that the door needs more push than it should.
This is not a setting to turn up as a workaround. A force limit set too high defeats the reason it exists. If the door needs more force than it used to, the mechanical cause (spring, rollers, track, balance) should be found and fixed first, and the force setting left at a safe level.
Is the down-travel limit set wrong?
The down-travel limit tells the opener where the closed position is. LiftMaster's guide to adjusting the limit or travel puts it plainly: limit adjustment settings regulate the points at which the door will stop when moving up or down, and if anything interferes with the door's downward travel, including binding or an unbalanced door, it will reverse.
What points here: the door stops or reverses at the same spot every time, rather than at a random point, and it is not near the floor. This is different from a sensor block, which usually happens near the bottom, and different from a force trip, which can happen anywhere along the path. A limit set to expect the door lower than it can actually travel will make the opener think it has hit the floor and reverse early, every time, at that same height.
Adjusting the limit is a manufacturer-specific procedure done at the opener head, and getting it wrong in the other direction, so the door tries to travel past where it can safely go, adds strain to the system. If the stopping point repeats exactly, this is worth having checked rather than guessed at.
Match your symptom
| What you see | Where it happens | Likely cause |
|---|---|---|
| Door reverses right after touching the floor, lights flash | Near the floor | Blocked or misaligned sensor |
| Door won't move down at all with the remote, but closes with a wall button held down | Does not start | Blocked or failed sensor |
| Door reverses partway, nothing visible in the way | Mid-travel, varies | Force limit tripping, often a mechanical cause behind it |
| Door stops or reverses at the exact same height every time | Same spot, repeatable | Down-travel limit set wrong |
| Door goes up fine, down side seems heavier or slower | Whole travel | Spring or balance problem, not a sensor or setting |
Safe checks before calling
- Try the wall-mounted button, held down, rather than the remote. If that closes the door normally, the sensors are the likely cause.
- Look at both sensor eyes for a blinking or solid light and a clear line of sight between them. Wipe the lenses. Do not adjust or rewire them yourself.
- Clear anything from the floor near the sensors and from the door's path.
- Note whether the stopping point is always the same height or changes. That single detail narrows it to a limit problem or a sensor and force problem.
- Do not increase the force setting to push through resistance. Do not keep cycling a door that reverses every time; that repeats the same strain on whatever is actually causing it.
Won't-go-down questions
Why does my garage door open but not close?
Almost always because the opener's safety system is stopping it: a blocked or misaligned photo-eye sensor, a force setting tripping on unexpected resistance, or a down-travel limit set to the wrong point. Opening does not use the same sensors, which is why one direction can work while the other does not.
The door closes if I hold the wall button down. What does that tell me?
That points to the sensors rather than the motor or the logic board. A constant-contact wall button is the fallback method CPSC rules allow specifically because it does not rely on the sensors, so if it works, the sensors are the most likely fault.
Is it OK to just hold the button every time until it's fixed?
As a short-term workaround, yes, that is what the button is designed to allow. It is not a fix. Have the sensors checked so the door goes back to closing normally and safely on its own.
Can I just turn up the force setting so the door stops reversing?
No. The force limit exists to stop the door on real resistance. Turning it up to push past a problem removes that protection. If the door needs more force than before, find out why (spring, rollers, track, balance) rather than overriding the setting.
Why does it stop at the exact same spot every time?
A repeatable stopping point that is not near the floor usually points to the down-travel limit, not the sensors. LiftMaster's documentation describes this limit as the setting that tells the opener where the closed position is.
Sources
- U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 1993 final rule on automatic garage door openers (entrapment protection requirements)
- Chamberlain Group support, garage door closing issues (sensor alignment, obstruction reversal behavior)
- Chamberlain Group / LiftMaster support, adjusting the limit or travel on a garage door opener
Force-limit adjustment procedures are brand-specific and not detailed here; consult your opener's manual or a technician before changing that setting. This is general information, not a substitute for your opener's manual. Sources were read in September 2026.
Door won't close in Hugo?
If the sensors, force setting and travel limit all check out and the door still won't close, call and describe exactly where it stops or reverses.
