If your garage door starts down but stops or goes back up before it reaches the floor, check three things first: the safety sensors at the bottom of the tracks, anything in the door's path, and the opener's close limit. Those you can look at yourself. If the door binds, hangs crooked, or stopped working after a loud bang, the problem is the door itself (a spring, a cable, a roller or a track), and it should not be run until it is fixed.
Before anything else: if the door will not move at all from the remote but works from the wall button, the remote battery is the likely cause. Replace it and try again.
1. The safety sensors are blocked or out of line.
Every opener made for sale in the US since 1993 has to reverse when the closing door meets something, and needs a second safety system on top of that, such as a pair of photo eyes a few inches off the floor (16 CFR Part 1211). If a sensor light is off or blinking, clear anything in the beam, wipe both lenses and nudge the bracket until the light holds steady; the safety sensor troubleshooting guide goes step by step.
2. Something is in the door's path or in a track.
Walk both tracks from top to bottom and look for pebbles, leaves, ice, a toy or a broken roller wedged in the track. Check the bottom seal too: a bunched or frozen seal can stop the door short of the floor.
3. The close limit or force setting is off.
If the door touches the floor and goes back up, or stops an inch or two short every time with nothing in the way, the opener's close (down) limit or force setting needs adjusting. Openers set these differently, with adjustment screws on some and buttons on others, so follow the procedure in your opener's manual or on the maker's support site. Afterward, lay a 2x4 flat under the door and close it: the door must reverse when it touches the board. If the setting will not hold, see garage door opener repair.
4. The lock bar is engaged.
Many doors have a manual slide lock on the inside that pushes a bar into the track. With the bar out, the door stops where it meets it. Slide the lock back and try again.
5. The emergency release has been pulled.
If the opener runs but the door does not follow, the red release cord has probably disconnected the door from the opener. Check the springs and cables first (cause 6): with a broken spring, a released door can drop. Then reconnect the trolley as Eric's emergency checklist shows.
6. A spring or a cable is broken.
A loud bang, a gap in the spring coil above the door, a cable hanging slack or off its drum, or a door that hangs crooked all point here. Stop using the opener and do not pull the release while the door is open. How to tell if a spring is broken, spring replacement and cable repair.
7. Worn rollers, a bent track or a damaged hinge.
If the door shudders, rubs or jerks on the way down, or one side runs ahead of the other, the door is binding. It gets harder to run and can come off its tracks, so stop using it: track repair, and off-track repair if rollers have already left the track.
Is it the door or the opener?
Once the door is fully closed, pull the red release cord and lift the door by hand. If it moves with little effort and stays put, the door is fine and the opener needs attention. If it is very heavy, a spring has failed: lower it, leave it closed and call. Only do this with the door fully closed (the one-minute check). Some openers will close the door while you press and hold the wall button even when the sensors are out of line; your manual says whether yours does.
From our job records, recent calls for a door that would not close or for its safety sensors:
Littleton, September 2026. Service call to fix the opener safety sensors.
North Andover, September 2026. Service call for a door that would not close: adjusted and serviced on the visit.
Chelmsford, June 2026. Service call for a broken door that was stuck and would not close. Freed it and closed it on the visit.
When to stop and call: a bang followed by a door that will not work, a door hanging crooked, or rollers out of the track. If the door is stuck open and cannot wait for a scheduled visit, see emergency garage door repair. Emergency calls are $300 minimum, which covers the visit and the repair up to $300; a bigger repair costs the same as it would scheduled. Everything else goes through garage door repair.