So I hear about this Lost to the Ages quest. Cool, sounds nice, great ending loot. So I plod on over to the ruin with the Ghost lady (Name escapes me) She talks to me and decides to follow me. So far so good. Then I get to her body. No journal, no Book. The quest didn't start at all. So I reload a save and this time, I go and read "The Aetherium Wars". Nothing. Read the book, Take the book, take and read multiple copies, NOTHING. So I decide to use a guide to get all the Aetherium shards. I do that then I head to the place where you put the shards and enter the Forge, but the pedestal doesn't respond. I can also drop the shards as if they were not quest items. The ghost lady is also nowhere to be found.

Anyone else have this issue? Any fixes?

I am having a similar issue, except mine is as follows: I started the quest, three quarters of the way to the first shard the ghost stops moving. I then decide to continue and pick up the other four shards. As I do everything and finally enter the forge she appears... she then tells me the last few words that she was supposed to say earlier and then tells me to meet her at the forge and then disappears, and I have not seen her again because I have already opened the forge.

Have you tried this?

Ok, so I'm guessing that for all "quest won't start" or "quest won't finish" problems, this is what I should do?

If I do the Uninstall/Reinstall Method, will I lose all of my Dragonbone weapons?

You wont, as long as you dont load up skyrim until you have fully reinstalled dawnguard.

Does not work, its failing to trigger on a per character basis.

Just tried uninstalling and reinstalling Dawnguard, Katria's journal is still missing.