Ok So I just started playing dawnguard today on PC, Everything seemed fine with the dlc no glitches or problems at all, Until I get to Castle Volkihar (taking serana home for the quest) So I run up to the gate it doesn't open, Thought there was a problem, ran back to the shore, made sure serana followed me, talked to her on the bridge, gate opened, Then BAM! slap in the face! door into the castle won't open, No matter what, it's not locked, I click nothing happens, waited days, reloaded old saves, did the quest over and over again with new and old characters, happens again and again, so I decided to do some research, A few other's are having the same problem, But they tried thing's I didn't want to do, Re installing dawnguard, re installing all of skyrim, deleting everything just to get a fresh start, Still the door won't open for them, So I don't wanna try that, and from a couple of them that actually talked to Bethesda support about it, They basically said Bethesda told them to go F themselves and they can't and won't do anything about it, So.......Any ideas? Becuase this is complete [censored], And yes I and many others tried it with no mods. No ideas? well if you have the same problem start complaining so Bethesda will actually listen and fix it.

oh my gosh i lold at BAM SLAP IN THE FACE LOl
but thats messed up they better fix that

When you got to the gate, was there a watchman that started yelling about Serana benig home?

Yah at first he told me to go away and the second time I made sure she was right next to me he started shouting that shes home and hasn't been home in forever etc. etc. I really don't know what to do about this Iv'e tried everything I think is possible beside's the long and irritating thing's other people have tried which didn't work for them so I figure i'm in the same boat as them I don't wanna bother doing all that, It seem's like not many people have this problem compared to all the other glitch complaints at least, I don't even see a reason for this happening, Iv'e tried player.moveto and coc console commands and its like the inside of volkihar and the npc's inside don't even exist they take me nowhere besides the courtyard and crypt which still doesent get me into the part of the castle i need, ive been at this for hours and hours and so far it seems impossible for now im going say this is on bethesdas side and is only something they can fix. or maybe it has something to do with steam, either way at this point i dont think its a player caused problem.


EDIT: Just found out it has also happened to Xbox User's so that cut's out the problem being steam or anything pc related, Bethesda this [censored]'s on you.

I'd love to be in this situation xD

At least I'd know I'd have the game and things were being worked on lol

Dunno if its actually being worked on or not though :/ bethesda told people they couldn't do anything about it.

You are running the PC version right? Have you tried unlocking or disabling the door via console commands hopeful once you enter it would start the next script so you can continue the quests or maybe that NPC that opens the door is MIA


You could try resetting the quest Bloodline (make sure you backup your saved game) via the console command `resetquest DLC1VQ02` (without ` quotes)

Yah I'm running the pc version Iv'e tried unlocking the door with console but not disabling it, can you? and I can try resetting the quest haven't heard of that being tried yet, Ill give it a shot.

You can disable/hide just about any in game object (NPCs to doors) using the console command `disable` it should come back when you reenter the cell or you could toggle collision off via `TCL` so you can enter though the gate but if next script does not start then I do not know what to do there is one other thing you could try is to skip to the next stage like those setstage DLC1VQ02 20, DLC1VQ02 40 and setstage DLC1VQ02 180

Make sure you backup your saved game before trying this though.

If BGS released a statement saying they could not do anything, it's probably mod interference. Have you tried a clen unmodded install on a new PC? Have you spoken to Steam to see if there are any install files you need to delete to get a truly fresh start?

There should be no need for any user-mods to be editing Dawn guard's references unless it's a unofficial patch.

Unless it's a scripting conflict.

So far, no problems on a clean game here.

Tried disable its just a black stone wall behind it and I don't enter anything when I run into it, I don't have the time right now to try resetting and doing the quest again though I'll leave that for tomorrow, Iv'e tried tcl several times thats a no go, ill try skipping to the next stage of the quest tomorrow too if resetting doesn't work and BGS didn't release any statement about it just when Player's asked support they pretty much said F off we can't do anything your screwed to those player's, One on One game companies are usually harsh and don't give a damn, and you can delete all your skyrim data, steam and all if you know where to look it would be almost like your computers never played it, don't need to ask steam for that, and yes I've tried a clean save with no mods ever on it, and the mod's I do have right now have nothing to do with doors, castle valkihar or anything dawnguard related expect changes to the vampire lords damage scaling, and I'm not gonna just pull a new pc out of my ass xD skyrims not worth a whole new pc especially because mines top end, It's a very expensive rig, and this seem's to be a rare glitch duplicating it would be hard, some people get some glitches while others get other glitches and some people get lucky enough to have none, thats the way its always been, but really my mods deffenitly have nothing to do with it especially because a few xbox players ran into the same issue so its not anything pc related, if i can fix it with console commands great but for the xbox and probably one day some ps3 users if BGS doesent fix this its a waste of money on something we can barly use with this glitch.

Adding to the glitch's happening to some people and not to other's for example when oblivion first came out, I modded the piss out of it, Played it to it's full extent, Not one problem or glitch the whole time I played it, Even with mods, While ton's of other's where having some simplistic to severe issues. It's like Russian roulette completely random.

Have you try starting a new game? With some of those rare bugs sometimes the only fix is to uninstall, reinstall the game and then start a new game I found this with Fallout 3, Fallout NV and Oblivion.

Theres still no official statement on dawnguard for PS3 so I don't think they're gonna tell you when they'll help you.

You'll just one day get a patch and never run into it again probably. But official statements don't seem to be something Bethesda likes to give.

You'll need the door enabled, because you need to click it to take you to the interior of the castle. The interior isn't actually "behind" the door, it's in a different place altogether, and when you click the door the game repositions your player in the interior cell, giving the illusion you've walked through it.

Sorry if you knew this already!

It sounds to me, though, like there's a problem with the scripted event where the gatekeeper runs off opening the door (which would mean that when you enter the castle, there are all the speeches afterwards).

Does the gate keeper open up the door to enter the castle? not the metal gate before the actual door into the castle? because he only opens the gate for me not the door and I knew that bigredpanda I was just giving it a try, I'm at the "i'll try anything" point and to the other questions yes I've tried starting a new game, others have tried fresh installs I haven't because it didn't work for any of them and I'll agree there bethesda does avoid official statements and announcements I think they like to keep "surprises" for us but sometimes they really need to be more informative especially on patches for their games I get keeping upcoming games and DLC under raps but the rest makes no sense, As for me Darksiders 2 came out today so i'm not gonna be playing skyrim at all, Just hoping by time i'm done with Darksiders 2 theres a patch that fixes this bug but anyways feel free to keep posting ideas or putting in your opinion on this glitch, ill take the time to try them all even if i'm not gonna be playing skyrim, Just knowing the problems been solved would set my mind at ease if someone could find a fix or a way to get around it, Ill be checking up on this post a few times a day and when I try something Ill mention if it worked or not. Thank's for all the input though guys.

Such a wierd bug, you can always look up the option to advance the quest you're on through the console.
I had to do that in vanilla skyrim on patch 1.4 once.

I had a similar/same problem once when trying to enter Dimwit Cave (or whatever it's called... lol). I found the cave, but it wouldn't ever give me the prompt "To Dimwit Cave", and it wouldn't let me open it.

Turned out I just reloaded from a save I had made from right before I discovered the cave, and it allowed the processor and programming to cleanup the mistake. Reloading worked. the second time around, it let me enter the cave.

I don't see why this wouldn't work for you. But other than this one glitch, that one time, Dawnguard has run amazingly clean for me.

I'm on Xbox, BTW.

Have you tried teleporting yourself into the castle cell?

Try "coc DLC1VampireCastleZCell1" or try "coc DLC1VampireCastleZCell2" I don't know which one actually takes you to the main hall of the castle, so I've listed both potential cells. That might get you past the beggining.

Well I forced my way in by using the sqs and SetStage console commands (for some reason the game only set the first stage flag). Unfortunatly the quest line defaulted to me not to be turned into a vampire (yes!).

The bigger problem is that I'm still stuck with Serana following me. Is there a console command that will get her to stop? I tried killing her, but she seems to be set to essential.

Try: "set playerfollowercount to 0"

I was instructed by bethesda (after waiting 2.5 weeks for an email response) to uninstall skyrim and dawnguard and reinstall it clean and start a new character/save. It fixed the problem. Still missing crossbow animations though.

Alright Finally Had time to try everything, Even though my first attempt worked I decided to try everything you guys suggested In case other player's need to know the fixes for this, Resetting the quest line works, Sadly you have to restart from the begging of the dawnguard questline and not just the quest to take serana to volkihar (luckily though it's not really that far back), Skipping to the next stage of the quest seem's to work at random, sometimes it work's sometimes it doesn't (Though by default you won't become a vampire lord, You'll be on the side of the dawnguard). Trying to teleport yourself doesen't work, You can teleport to the cells for the crypt, Courtyard and the north and east towers but that won't get you to the part of castle volkihar you need to be in, The ways into the actual castle are blocked off (Further in the questline you can repair the courtyard if your on the vampires side but setting your quest stage further will automatically side you with the dawnguard) and lastly re installing everything from scratch work's best, and i'd recommend it over all the other methods so your games more stable and you get to chose becoming a vampire or staying with the dawnguard plus you get more of the story skipping stages leaves out a lot, Restoring a skyrim backup from any date does not work. Thank's for all your input guys! So problem officially solved!

(Though some player's said re installing didn't work for them, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they never really tried it and were to lazy, They tried restoring a backup or they re installed from scratch but didn't start a new character, yes you have to start a new character if you even load your old one it will register the glitch again, So I recommend deleting all your skyrim save's from your pc and the steam cloud saves. otherwise the glitch may still occur.)

Everyone in this thread and especially Cilian, THANK YOU! I was going crazy trying to figure out how to get through the damn door! I used the setstage commands to advance and was able to become a vampire lord.

SPOILER ALERT to finish the troublesome quest

What I did to progress was use the console command "coc dlc1vampirecastleguildhall" to get inside. Serana doesn't follow you. I walked up to Lord Harkon. If you try to speak to him it says he's busy. (I watched Youtube Walkthroughs to see the dialog choices and to see how the story progresses a little.) I only tried to be a vampire so in the console I entered "setstage DLC1VQ02 40". I exited the console to see what happened and nothing did. Then I went back into the console and entered "setstage DLCVQ02 180". This completes the quest and starts the next quest. Vampires start moving around now and complain that I'm no longer a vamp and that maybe I should see Harkon to give me the gift again. Harkon can be spoken to now and he will transform you again. (Which is really the first time for you.) You can follow him to the spot where you're supposed to wake up after your first transformation where he gives a tutorial on being a vamp. You just make a left up some stairs then you should see some more stairs going up till you get to the room where Harkon explains your powers. After this you can then start the next quest.

For the people who don't want to be a vamp you could try setstage 30 then setstage 190. 190 should finish the quest refusing the gift, but I haven't tried this yet. Well, I hope this helped some people.