Very recently, our bedroom door no longer latches when you pull it closed. The latch itself no longer is aligned with the strike plate. The latch is now lower than the hole in the strike plate.
I’ve tried tightening all of the screws in the hinges on the door, but without luck.
Is there an adjustment I can make to the hinges or something that will fix this? What’s the best way to approach this?
Thanks,
J.
It’s possible that your place has settled some which is causing things to not aligned.
If it’s not off too far, try removing the bottom and maybe middle hinge and putting in a spacer. Something like a piece of cardboard may be enough.
Otherwise take off the strike plate and scrap off some of the wood so that the bolt will go into it. Then grind off some of the strike plate to match and reinstall it.
Remove the striker plate ( the metal piece on the door frame). Get down and look at where the bolt ( the part that comes out of the door) and Mark where the bottom of the bolt hits. Take a chisel, or a razor cutter, or even a flat head screwdriver and dig out the wood at the bottom of the hole, extending the opening for the bolt to go into. Try the door and see if it matches. If it does, line the plate up with the new lower opening and screw it on. If not, keep lining, digging and testing till it does.
I work at an apartment complex and we have to do it pretty frequently, especially when the foundation shifts.
All kinds of Youtube videos, for example:
Most striker plates have oblong shaped screw holes so they can be moved up and down without drilling new holes. See it that’s the case with yours. If not, maybe Home Depot or Lowe’s sells striker plates by themselves that have this feature. Doors and jambs move with the seasons because they swell and shrink if they are wood. Striker plates are meant to be moved. The hole for the door latch is probably bigger than the hole in the striker plate, so you won’t need to redrill that either.
Are there other doors or windows which have become misaligned?
Is this the first floor or above?
When I was house-hunting, an agent told me to avoid two story homes in a certain area because the ground had settled under them. On the two-story houses, the advice was to check the doors on the second floor for just this situation.
You can either shim up a hinge or relocate the striker. Moving the striker will create a hole where the striker screws were. Spackle or wood filler will work for painted surfaces.
If this house is of the age when the woodwork was real wood and shellaced instead of painted, shim the hinges. Relocating the striker will make a mess of the door frame.
Do exactly as bunnymom instructs. I just fixed this very issue on an exterior door to my workshop. It wasn’t a difficult fix. I just chiseled out about an eighth of an inch in the door frame so the striker plate could sit a bit lower, slid the striker plate into place and re-screwed it to the door frame in its new position. If you don’t want to mess with spackle or door filler for the existing holes (I didn’t), you can pound in some little shards of scrap wood (think tapered match-sized pieces) and cut them off flush with the door frame.
Be sure to drill a guide hole before screwing in the new striker plate screws so you don’t split the wood on the door frame.
The striker plate will cover your sins.
Worked a treat. Just go slow and easy with the chisel and hammer so you don’t take more than you meant to. I imagine you can just touch up the paint on the door frame before permanently reattaching the striker plate.
Good luck!
This is happening to my condo , my building is settling so much I can see it in my floors too . My bookcases looks like leaning tower of Pisa . My SIL had to put a piece
of wood under the strike plate to made the lock work . My door jamb has buckle out from the building settling so much . My dad had to put some poles in the basement when our house started to settle .
Shim the hinges. Old credit cards are perfect for this.
I have done the following:
Take off the striker plate, chisel away some of the wood and file down the striker plate a little.
Or:
Take off a hinge, insert a washer and put the hinge back. The washer will eventually wear away and you will have to repeat.
Both worked but the house continues to settle.
If you do split the wood on the door frame, or have to screw something in too close to an existing screw hole, you can drill out a larger section, then glue in a section of dowel that’s the same size, then screw into that. It won’t be as strong as the original frame, but that’s really only relevant for exterior doors (and zombie attack scenarios).
That’s a good tip. Thank you! 
I’m not the handiest girl in the world… I used lipstick to cover the end of the door latch to mark how far down I had to chisel out the area under the striker plate to make sure the door latch would fit into the space. It worked great, but no “perfeshunal” would do that, I imagine.
This is an exterior door, but my workshop is not easily accessed from off the property and I’m not worried about zombie attack scenarios. 
I just need it to close and latch and now it does! I’m now feeling handy enough to maybe install a deadbolt, too. Heck, I just replaced a flush valve in a toilet the other day! A deadbolt can’t be that much harder… I hope.
Take a screw out of the top hinge (jamb side!) and replace it with a longer (3" or so) screw. This is for the latch being lower. If the latch were higher, you replace a screw on the low hinge. I’m betting this fixes it for you.
What, no one thought to just say “f*ck more quietly”? 
This is a tricky fix. Trickier than most loose hinge issues.
I fix a lot of old doors. Lowdown’s suggesting is the first thing I would try as it is easiest and causes least disturbance. You want to hit solid wood not the drywall so use the hinge screw holes towards the center of the jamb not the outside / casing.
Shimming hinges is next,to try. Moving or altering the strike is the last resort but might be necessary if there is not enough gap around the door fir the other methods to work.
Since this is exactly what was recommended by This Old House when I looked it up, I bet they would so.