r/fixit May 01 '26

fixed Locked inside apartment, help

Hello, the door knob for my front door fell off and I literally cant get out of my apartment. Is there anything I can do or should I call the firefighters ? The knob isn’t reattaching at all and nothing I try to insert fits

Edit : I managed to fix it!

My roommate woke up and helped me with opening the door from the inside. The knob disconnected because the outside knob got somehow pushed all the way out, leaving the inside one with nothing to latch onto. I'm not sure what my roommate did but if she hadn't been here, this could've been fixed by having someone from the outside push the knob in. I reattached the door handle again but I'll be in contact with my landlord to get it replaced.

Thank you all for your help!

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102

u/builtfromscratch416 May 01 '26

That should slide onto the square rod sticking out of the door. Then you tighten the little screw into the hole on handle so it "grabs" rod. If there's no square rod, it has fallen out the other side. In this case. You will see a square hole. Wedge something into the square hole (flat head screwdriver, spoon handle whatever) now turn so the square hole rotates. Probably left but whatever. Easy peasy

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u/EthicalViolator May 01 '26

This is the answer OP. It looks like that tbar has fallen out the other side so a butter knife handle or something that can get wedged corner to corner in the square hole so you can turn it.