What You Can Do If Your Garage Door Opener Remote Was Stolen
Nothing is as disturbing as the realisation that someone may have stolen the remote to your garage door opener. You are likely to be restless until you can find a way to secure your home against any intruder who may have stolen your remote when it was in your unlocked car. This article discusses some options that you can implement in order to prevent that unauthorised person from using the stolen remote to enter your home.
Option 1: Disable the Remote
Many garage door openers now rely on rolling codes to send and receive signals from a remote control. This mechanism presents your first line of defence in case your remote is stolen. Check for a green, orange, yellow, red or purple smart button on the housing of the garage door opener motor. Refer to the manual in case you aren't sure about which button is the smart button referred to here. Push on that button for a few seconds in order to deprogramme all the keypads and remotes that are within your house. Next, follow the steps given in the manual to reprogramme the keypads and remotes in the home. The stolen one won't be able to open your garage door any more.
Option 2: Unplug the Opener
Some older garage door openers may not have a control panel. In such a case, simply unplug the garage door opener from its wall socket. This step will make it impossible for any remote to be used to open the garage door. You will then have to pull the emergency release cord inside your home in case you want to open the garage door manually. You may then have to install a lock outside the garage door to secure the door until you install a new opener.
Option 3: Erase the Wireless Program on Your Phone
Some people may have garage-door opening systems that can be operated wirelessly using a smartphone in addition to remotes. Such people only need to erase the garage-door opening programmes on their phones. This will remove the connection between the stolen remote and the door opener. However, the phone will still be able to send commands to the garage door opener because the receiver on the garage door will still recognise and accept commands sent from the phone. Check with the provider of the software that you use in order to confirm that this method is the right way to disable a stolen remote.
As you can see, there is no shortage of options if you discover that your remote was stolen. The procedures or options above only serve the role of opening your eyes about what is possible. It is therefore your duty to confirm with the manual/manufacturer of your system how exactly the options can be implemented for your particular garage door opening system.