Alright, so I may be one of the lucky ones and haven't really seen many glitches at all in Dawnguard. However, I had a game breaking one tonight. I was able to avoid losing a 340 hour save file by having a back-up like you always should. So here is what the glitch is-


When you have to go to the Ancestor Glade to read the Elder Scroll on the Dawnguard side, if you DON'T have Serana following you and have her wait somewhere, a glitch follows. When you enter the glade, Serana will automaticly appear at the start of the cave, but won't move. When you talk to her, she's already "following" you, but she isn't because she's standng completely still. I continue, thinking she'll catch up. I go on and read the scroll... Objective updates to tell me to "Speak to Serana", problem is, the door leading out is barred up, with no way out. Completly sealing you inside the cave. So unless you have a back-up save before this happens, you're stuck there for all time.

I fixed this by using my back-up save and having her follow me. If this is a known issue, then ignore this and some mod will surely lock this. Just thought I'd give a heads up.

that would svck i feel sorry for you.

i had this problem at darkfall cave she was standing still for 3 hours and started following me again just b4 i got to the temple

Serana is an awesome follower in the regard she has very interesting dialogue and commentation on her surroundings. She also does random stuff instead of just stand there like most other NPC followers

The problem is she is very buggy. My level 54 character for 99% of the time I had a follower is was Jenassa from the Drunken Huntsman in Whiterun and Serana. I had Jenassa for a follower. Then I downloaded Dawnguard. I continued to have Jenassa for a bit longer. Then I had Serana follow me. For some reason Serana could carry a tremendous amount of gear, which of course I thought was amazing. I can't remember where it was I asked Serana to "wait here" which she did, of course. But when I came back and opened the dialogue for her to follow me, the "follow me" dialogue was mysteriously missing. So I said we should part ways thinking I could just reopen the dialogue that would get her to "follow me." No such luck. Now she's back at Volkihar Castle and is just like any other NPC who won't follow you at all... and the only dialogue you can have with her is "will you put your blood on these arrows?" Jeez.

Okay, this really cool follower won't follow anymore, so I went back to Jenassa back in Whiterun. Curiously, Jenassa doesn't carry anywhere near the amount of stuff she used to do. Her carry weight is much less than before I picked up Serana for a follower.

The ONLY thing I think could have happened is that Jenassa's and Serana's carry weights got POOLED TOGETHER somehow, and since Serana was carrying so much stuff it means Jenassa can only carry that much less. Quite possibly, and this is something I haven't tried yet, the only way I can get Jenassa's carry weight back to something more normal is approaching Serana and pickpocketing all that eccess stuff off of her... or by killing her, if that's even possible, and removing the stuff that way.

I hate to say it, but I'm actually thinking about removing Dawnguard until some of these bugs are worked out.

I have read about weight issues when followers are dismissed. Not sure if that was ever addressed... I gather the weight they have when dismissed "stays" and accumulates...

BTW, I have found out once you have Serana, she is yours forever..... Unless you never want her again.... (Sounds wrong for all the right reasons!)

This just happened to me, I made a thread saying almost the same thing you just did minus the Jenassa weight carrying issue, but Serana just stands there in the castle and barely has any dialogue options at all, like you said only the arrow dialogue is available, and on top of that the Vampires keep giving me the same quest, i can only hope they lead to some ending quest like the theives guild did, The coolest thing so far was bringing Valerica back from the soul cairn, I wish she would leave her laboratory though and maybe fix the courtyard, I wish the more you did and the more you got rid of other vampire dens the castle came back to life a little more, so many things need improvement and more options