A bit of a different post today. Here are instructions for setting up the MyQ Home Bridge (either model) without the use of the MyQ app. You wouldn’t know it searching online or by the included instructions, but it is possible to set one of these up without a MyQ Account or the use of the app. Hopefully this will be useful to someone in the future.

These are not instructions for using MyQ with Homebridge, and if you’re going that route I would just recommend using something from a company more reputable than Chamberlain, like Meross, anyway.

Of course, Chamberlain discontinued the product because no one likes MyQ, but for anyone who still has one, or for future me, this could be useful. I’ll reserve my comments on Chamberlain/Liftmaster the company until the end.

Step Zero: Factory Reset

If you need to factory reset the device, here are those instructions:

  1. Press and hold the gear button until the blue LED starts flashing, then release.
  2. Press and hold the gear button again until all three LEDs quickly flash.
  3. Press button 2 twice until all three LEDs are on
  4. Press and hold button 2 until all three LEDs turn off, which should happen simultaneously
  5. Unplug the unit.

When you plug it back in, it will be back to factory default settings.

Step One: Set up HomeKit

This works just like any other homekit device. It adds itself as a hub, and each door is a separate accessory.

  1. Plug the device in if it isn’t.
  2. Add your phone to a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network. This isn’t a high-quality device and only supports 2.4 GHz, but as it’s probably far from your router and through a few walls anyway, 2.4 GHz is actually better than 5 GHz in this case. That clearly wasn’t an intentional design choice, however.
  3. Go to the Home app, and add an accessory.
  4. You can scan the code with the camera (it’s not a QR code, just an 8-digit code), but the iPhone’s OCR tends to be unreliable here. Click “More Options”, “My Accessory isn’t Here”, and “Enter Code”.
  5. Enter the 8-digit code.
  6. Wait for the device to be added, and follow the prompts.

I have had to do this a few times now. Sometimes it was instant, other times it took several hours. Be patient, go grab dinner, maybe check back again in the morning, or just keep trying until it works.

Step Two: Set up the door

  1. Use the learn button on your garage door motor to set it to learn mode.
    A Chamberlain garage door button with a large gray top that can be flipped up to reveal additional hidden buttons

    If you have a Chamberlain or Liftmaster button that looks like this, maybe with more buttons, see if you can flip the big gray thing up. Underneath it there may be a “learn” button. You can press this button twice to set the garage door motor to learn mode.

  2. On the home bridge, press button 1 (or button 2 for a second door) twice until all three LEDs are on
  3. Press and hold the gear button until the garage door motor clicks, and possibly flashes. The LED on the motor (or the wall button if you’re using that) should go out.

The garage door should now be configured with the unit.

And You’re Done

Clearly this isn’t a very good device, and it’s probably good that Chamberlain took it off the market…if they replaced it with something decent. They, of course, did not, and this is pretty typical of their smart home product line. In general, avoid MyQ as much as you can—you’ll be better off with nothing before MyQ, with the sole exception of garage doors and maybe gates.

If you want to use a MyQ device with HomeKit and you don’t have one of these units, you’re probably better off. Instead, use a Meross controller, or something else from any other brand that is more reputable than Chamberlain.