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I moved into a new house and didn't have any issues with the garage door. About a week after I moved in, I bought a remote for the opener since the owner hadn't given me one. After programming the remote, we realized that my next door neighbor's remote worked my garage (but mine didn't work their's). I re-programmed my remote with a new frequency and fixed that issue, but now the garage opens on its own.

I've tried using the lock button on the wall but that doesn't help. The only thing that prevents it from opening is to unplug the opener entirely. I don't think it's an issue with the remote at this point because it opened while I was away from my house with the remote (luckily I made sure to lock the door from the garage to the house).

Is this likely an issue with the actual opener or the wiring? Is there anything I can do to check?

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    It's one of the new Predictive Garage Door systems. It tries to figure out when you'd want the door open, and when you'd want it closed, and acts accordingly. (They're still working the bugs out.)
    – Daniel Griscom
    Commented May 17, 2016 at 13:35
  • To get better answers please provide a link to exactly what you purchased as a new remote.
    – Tyson
    Commented May 17, 2016 at 15:35

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If it didn't open randomly before you changed the frequency (to avoid your neighbor) then you probably stumbled onto another frequency in use in your area, and that's why it continues to open unintentionally. You might want to record the frequency variations you have tried, then switch to another (most remotes support dozens of possible choices) until you find one that results in no unintended operation.

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  • Would using the lock button on the wall prevent other remotes from opening the garage? Because when I tried locking it the garage still opened randomly.
    – B Giordano
    Commented May 17, 2016 at 14:19
  • Or try driving around the neighborhood and see if your remote works on anyone else's garage :D
    – DarthCaniac
    Commented May 17, 2016 at 15:07
  • Is it safe to say that before changing the setting on the opener, there wasn't enough time to tell if it only opened unintentionally when your neighbor used their remote or if the random open problem was there all along? You are right, if the lock is properly turned on (some work differently, and only lock after its held until it flashes) then it should never open from any remote.
    – Jeff Meden
    Commented May 17, 2016 at 15:25
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In my personal experience, you likely have a partially fried garage door opener motherboard.

Unless it's incredibly ancient, it should code-lock (not merely "frequency choice") to only its particular remotes. In any case, if you tell it to lock out, it should lock out. Since neither of those things seems to happen, "Something is wrong." In my particular case, the "something that was wrong" was of a different nature and more hazardous to life and limb (it tried to ram the door through the floor, ignoring the height settings and the auto-reverse) but the basics are that there's a tiny computer in there, and when it it goes wrong, things don't work as they should.

I gambled on a new motherboard (and a big fat surge suppressor) for my unit, as it was pretty new - it was still a gamble, since the new MB was a part (costing half what the entire opener did) with no warranty; a whole new opener would come with a warranty, and is the approach I'm prone to suggesting unless you are pretty sure about the cause and history of the opener (which I don't think you are - in my case I'd installed it, and there was evidence suggesting a nearby lightning strike for a cause.)

I would suggest buying a new opener; and perhaps a big fat surge suppressor for it to plug into. Whether the opener is, in fact, so old that merely sharing a frequency is enough to set it off, or it's more modern and misbehaving, a new one should cure the problem.

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    This, very much this. There's no way a random signal on the same or another frequency can initiate any working garage door motor action.
    – Carl Witthoft
    Commented May 17, 2016 at 15:09

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