My Alivio front derailleur wont shift into the highest chainring. I have played with the H screw, as well as disconnected the cable. When I use my hand to force the derailleur from the 1st ring up to the 3rd ring, I am unable to pull it over the 3rd chainring. The farthest i can manually move it is just slightly beyond the second ring.

My derailleur does not seem to be bent or out of line, it feels like the spring wont allow it to pull out to the biggest chain ring. Am I not supposed to be able to pull it that far out with my hand in general and maybe needs the strength of a new inner wire?

Thank you.

is there a pebble between the set screw and limit toggle?

shouldn't be anything else in the mechanism that would limit it that way, but it is a low-end component.

take it off the bike.. . does it move then? no? replace... Alivio is cheap ..

yes , its the shifter.. < I guess, since its not in front of me, physically >

Housing /cable binding.. not the FD itself ..

No, I have taken the H screw completely out and checked it, then I have put it back in and played around with it. Still can't get the derailleur to pull out far enough.

Was it working previously? No other changes, like a new crank? Did you do any shifter or cable maintenance just before it quit?

Post a clear photo from above the bike and another from the side, and a third from the front or back would be good.

I can move my triple derailleur by hand. Both thumbs on the derailleur body, near the top. Pull on both index fingers behind the cage. It's a strong spring, but not too difficult to move.

(The Park Tool Help suggests wrapping a rag around the downtube part of the shift cable, and pulling it out by hand to move the derailleur to the big ring.)

Either:
1. Something is blocking the movement within the derailleur.

Verify you are adjusting the High limit screw:
The High limit screw keeps the derailleur from moving too far outward. You can see the tips of both limit screws. They both hit part of the derailleur body to stop the movement in one direction, and you can verify which one is High and which is Low by seeing when the ends of the screw is about to touch.

Maybe something broke in the derailleur body. But then, the shifts between the middle and small chainrings would probably have trouble too.
Is the cage loose at all if you wiggle it?

or

2. A crankset problem, where the chainrings have shifted outward. This seems very unlikely.
Is the crank loose if you grab the crank arm?
Do the middle and small chainrings still work the same?

Adjustment

Follow the Park Tool Front Derailleur Adjustment steps. Don't skip a step, start from the beginning. See if that helps!

I really like the Park Tool repair pages. They don't assume you have experience, and explain each step.

any chance the crank is loose on the spindle? has it backed off the taper? Or is the BB backing out? This would affect realized FD limit

Check your cable tension. You may have to loosen the nut a use the Allen wrench to move the derailleur up then skillfully tighten down the nut.