Try the following:

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Important: check if there's a tiny spring inside the black cylinder tube.
If not, the original wick in your Sproushi will not work as it doesn’t touch the humidifier
There are two ways to resolve this:
The wet bottom side of the wick is now directly touching the humidifier and should make it start easier
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Don’t feel comfortable opening up your Sproushi? Completely understandable. In that case you can return your Sproushi to us and we will ship out a replacement.
👉 Please use our replacement request form here
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We've noticed that a small number of units have had the power connection of the humidifier misplaced during shipping.
🪛 Are you comfortable using a screwdriver to open your Sproushi and fixing this yourself?
If yes, start by unscrewing the 8 screws in the black bottom enclosure (note that 6 screws are long and 2 are short)

After opening the bottom enclosure, do you find the round powercoil of the humidifier out of place?