Yea so I was smithing in Whiterun, making iron daggers to level my smithing and noticed that Lydia just disappeared on me. I fast traveled everywhere, checked my house, checked the Jarl's building, checked all around the dragon's corpses in Riverwood and other cities without walls i've fought them in looking for her body somewhere thinking maybe she got killed somehow but can't find anything. This really blows too because I spent a fortune decking her out in good gear and upgrading it all. -xbox 360

so.... nothing to say about this? Am I to believe i'm the only person this has happened to?

I've experienced a similar problem, left her in Breezehome and when I came back she "disappeared". However, she's still "there" as she speaks to me from time (that or my Dunmer is hearing voices). I've checked every inch of the building to see if I could talk to her at some point, but no reaction so far. Now I hope to get a detect life spell, but otherwise I wouldn't know what to do - apart from reloading a savegame from ten hours earlier. I should probably point out that this happened on my pc, so the console might offer a workaround, but other than that, I'll have to wait for a patch. I hope someone from Bethesda is reading this.

Correction: she was hiding behind the door. Silly girl

This happened to me to...i found her sitting in dragonsreach but she wont follow me even though she should be. she says i already have someone followwing me when it should really be her. My friend told me today it might be because the companion mission where u get a shield brother causes you to lose your teammate until you beat the mission.

The AI companions are not particularly smart in Skyrim, as well as previous Bethesda games. You constantly have to baby them wherever you go. If they somehow don't keep up with your normal running they'll get lost (happens frequently) and they can't seem to jump over rocks like I can. Instead, they try to find a way around and many times there isn't one.

yea they were pretty dumb not being able to jump over rocks and trying to find ways around, but you seemed to get lucky that she was just behind a door. As I said though, I was just smithing, wasn't doing anything that she could have possibly gotten lost, and when I go back home, her bed still says owned. This blows because I had her decked out in ebony gear that was upgraded epic+. Also, I play it on the 360 so you know.

Lydia went missing for me also!! And I can't get a new companion, because she is "still following me". She's been missing for hours worth of gameplay, and can't be found in my house of where she first joined me.

Please fix this bug, Bethesda, since a lot of people are experiencing the same thing. Let us take a new companion, even if the old one is nowhere to be found (making it impossible to let her go)!

"My" Lydia has disappeared inside an dwemer ruin. I was quite deep inside and told her that "Our ways are split now". She just said "Bye!" And was walking outside. Since then, she is just gone.

I can't find her! No matter where I'm looking!

I have an other companion by now but the "Incompleteness" of this situation makes me sick...

Please repair this Bethesda!

(Xbox 360)

While I understand that this svcks for all of you, this problem can be worked around. You need to constantly be checking to make sure she still with you and not stuck on anything. And if you're keeping plenty of backup saves you can quickly go back before you get too far without her.

Once she just decided she was done and was not going to take another step, I stopped to enjoy a view, and when I walked away she just stood there. I told her to wait then follow, still wouldn't move. Fast traveled away, still stuck. Had to go back a couple hours.

Yep, seems a couple of things usually happen. I've had her disappear when out in the countryside, looked everywhere, couldn't find her, and finally found her on a rock. Unable to move from there, apparently.

The two things that happen most often - one, you go off and for some reason she can't take that tiny jump you took to get over a log or rock or whatever, and her pathfinding AI gets stuck and so she just stays in place. Often if it's just a matter of you went down a mountain in some way she can't follow, you can just hit the "wait" button and wait for a couple of hours and when you come out of wait she'll be there, having gone the long way around, etc.

The other thing that can happen is she sees an "enemy" of some kind - it can be a wolf, whatever - and she goes into attack stance and just stands there in that mode. The wolf just stays where it is, she stays where she is, meanwhile you have no idea she wasn't following you until you look back and she's gone. Often if you go back and find her in her attack stance you can simply talk to her and tell her "wait here" then "follow me" and get her out of that mode.

Also, I've had her "stuck" on a ledge and she just wouldn't take the little jump needed to get off, so a nice Shout of push would push her off the ledge, then off we go.