What version of skyrim are you using..? This was fixed way back in 1.6.
But what's happening is, there was a bug where if you visited cells prior before they reset, it stops the respawn timer indefinitely. This can eventually empty your game and turn it into a wasteland.
Valtheim Towers was the go to example for many, including myself that reported it because after about 3-4 visits it's not hard to notice they aren't spawning anymore. Soon you will notice all the dragon lairs being affected by this as you visit them. Forts, etc.
Before the patch, there was no known fix.