Then the door stopped opening altogether.
Front door wont open from inside or outside.
There will either be a screw in the center of the handle or a retaining clip on the back side of the handle.
If it is engaged the door will not open from the inside by design.
If there are no gaps anywhere around the door you may have swollen wood or frozen hardware.
Eventually it just stopped opening from the outside completely and someone would have to open it from the inside.
Remove the inner door handle.
You can take a long screw driver of piece of drill rod and manipulate the lever that opens the latch to get the door open and make repairs as needed.
Look for a screw in the bezel under the handle lever.
How to fix an exterior door that won t open.
This video is for when you can t open your door from either the inside or the outside not both if you can t open your door from both the inside and outside.
Looking through the crack at the latch i think that s the word for it the metal part that goes inside the door when you move the handle it won t retract into the door completely.
Roll the window down and carefully push the door panel away at the top right above the latch rear of door then look down inside the door at the latch and figure out which rod fell of the latch.