How do I get the drain plug out of the sink?

My bathroom sink was having trouble opening and closing. At some point my wife removed the pop up by mistake. She needed to fill the sink so she dropped the plug in without the actual pop up. Now it is stuck flush to the bottom. I can't lift it out and I can't figure out how to. Any ideas? I have pictures but don't see where to attach them..



See this diagram of a popup sink stopper from In my sink pop-up stopper, the tip of the pivot rod is broken, how do I fix it?



The popup part has a hole on the bottom that sits inside the rod with the ball on it, held in by the nut.

Here are two ways to get the stopper up:

Unscrew the nut holding the rod & ball. Then try to use the rod to catch the bottom of the stopper and push it up. Grab the stopper inside the sink and pick it up.

Undo the P-trap drain and push a stick up the bottom of the drain to push the stopper up. Grab the stopper inside the sink and pick it up.

When re-assembling the stopper, try to get the rod & ball into the hole at the bottom of the stopper as you put the stopper back in, then tighten the nut on the ball so it is relatively tight enough to keep water from leaking out the nut, but not so tight that the rid cannot move using the pull-up knob behind the faucet.

If the problem you originally had with the stopper not moving easily was from the rod being broken, then linked answer has ideas on how to fix the rod.

OK I added the picture. Here is the back of the sink. I tried to go through here and push the stopper up but my snake isn't strong enough to push the plunger out I guess.

To remove the stopper, if you have kids and they have suction cup darts, use one of their darts to stick onto the stopper and pull it out. If you don't have that, then maybe a small loop of strong tape might work to give enough pull.

The usual design is that the bottom of the stopper has a hole in it and the level arm goes through that hole. Either the bottom of the stopper broke or, more likely in my experience (I've had to deal with the problem several times in two of my sinks), the end of the lever arm has corroded away.

Suction cup is a good idea. If that doesn't work (or you don't have one) try slipping the end of a very small regular screwdriver or a similar thin flat tool around the edge of the stopper. Once you get it up just a little bit, the rest is easy.

Examine the stopper. If it looks intact - something like this example from Amazon:



then you need to replace the lever mechanism. If it doesn't look intact then you need to replace the stopper itself - but in that case take a look at the lever as well to make sure it isn't due for replacement at the same time.

As far as replacing the lever/etc., I have used this one from Amazon (according to Amazon, I ordered it in 2023) as well as similar ones from Home Depot:



The key is that it is a "universal" design with multiple parts to fit different size drains, so it has a very good chance of working for a typical setup.

You see that crew-cap with the stick coming out of it? It's called the pivot rod nut. Unscrew it and remove the pivot rod. The plug should come out easily now. Then re-assemble.