What is the ADT Alarm Bypass?

By Benny Kounlavouth,

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ADT is designed to work with multiple devices to offer a comprehensive home security system. However, it sometimes becomes necessary to bypass one or two devices.

What is the ADT Alarm Bypass?

Every ADT alarm system comes with a bypass feature. This allows you to choose devices to “bypass” within your system while the alarm is active.

Simply put, bypassing will allow your ADT home security system to ignore signals from certain devices that would normally cause an alarm activation.

For example, if you’re at home with your system armed, you can bypass your back door so you can still come and go, without setting off the alarm.

Exceptions to ADT Alarm Bypass

ADT alarm systems won’t allow you to bypass certain devices for safety reasons. For example, you can’t bypass:

Smoke detectors
Flood detectors
Carbon monoxide detectors

Keep in mind that, anytime you bypass a sensor on your ADT alarm system, the level of security it provides goes down.

How Do You Bypass ADT Alarm Devices?

You can bypass devices in your ADT alarm system from your control panel. It only takes a minute, but the steps may differ based on which control panel you use.

I have the IQ panel and was able to set up bypass zones by:

Selecting the System Arm option.
On the modal that pops up, select the arrow on the right to expand your arming options.
Any open windows or doors will be automatically added the the “Active” section.
Select “All” to add any additional zones to bypass by adding a checkmark to the zone.
Arm your system. The bypassed zones will not trigger your alarm.

If you have a different panel, try this:

Press “Zones” on your panel dashboard.
Select the zones you want to bypass.
Press the “Bypass” button on your system panel.
Arm your system using your security code.

If this process doesn’t work on your system, consult your user manual.

Reasons to Use ADT Alarm Bypass

There are several reasons why you may need to bypass the sensors on devices within your ADT alarm system. These include:

One of your sensors is malfunctioning. Your technician will advise you to bypass it until they can come out and check it.
Your children or pets are at home and you want to arm the system until you arrive.
You want to leave your windows open while the alarm is active. Bypassing the window sensor gives you this freedom without causing the alarm to activate.

The most common reason people use the alarm bypass feature is to deactivate motion sensors while keeping their homes protected. Bypassing these sensors helps prevent false alarms.

Reasons Not to Bypass ADT Devices

ADT’s bypass feature is very convenient. However, there are times when you should avoid using it.

To troubleshoot other alarm issues. Your system won’t detect potential issues with a bypassed device.
When no people or animals are in your home. You should leave your home totally protected when you aren’t there.

Apart from when a technician advises it, the only time you should bypass a device for troubleshooting is when you’re changing the batteries.

What is the Key Combination for ADT Alarm Bypass?

You must enter the correct key combination to bypass the sensor you want to disable.

The key combination you’ll need varies by system. You can find your specific combination in your user manual.

If you don’t have your physical user manual, log into your ADT account online. You’ll be able to view and read your manual here.

How to Permanently Bypass Zones and Sensors

Unfortunately, there’s no way to permanently bypass certain zones or sensors within your ADT alarm system.

Any bypasses you have in effect will deactivate when you reset or restart your system, and no one wants an accidental activation after a power outage.
If you want to disable devices, zones, or sensors permanently, you’ll need to call ADT and have them do it for you.

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