I have 3 different pump bottles and can’t get the pump to pop up on any of them. I tried various things I found on youtube with no luck. One guy said it took him 30 minutes to get it working.
Anyone have any tips for this? Never had this problem until recently.
I usually just turn the topmost bit. It seems to find a notch where it can open and rises up…maybe you need to encourage it to come upward once you find that point?
One other thing I’ve found about pump bottles…the ones I keep in the shower usually malfunction before I’ve finished using the product. To get around this, I put a little plastic cup over the top. That keeps the pump mechanism dry and working forever.
Good luck!
I buy the generic store-brand liquid hand soap for my bathroom and kitchen. My solution has been that if I can’t get the new hand soap open (which happens like 1 in 4 times), I swap out the pump from the previous hand soap and use that.
I have not found a trick to open them reliably 
I’ve been doing that (reusing the pump dispenser) for my shampoo bottles for years.
Do this.
When you get it up put a tiny bit of baby oil or olive oil on the sliding part.
Same. I’ve been having this problem with Irish Spring. The first bottle I got, opened up like a champ. Every bottle after that; no dice.
Solved the problem by buying a new pump bottle from a pottery shop.