Ok, I've already described on here how I lost Lydia... still have no idea where she went. She just "vanished" from the game! I finally had to resign myself to grabbing another follower. Which I did. I got Uthgerd the Unbroken to follow me. Well, things seemed to be ok for awhile. We went running across the land, destination unknown, just exploring. Suddenly, I found a body lying on the ground. I checked it out, and he had a great weapon that I wanted. I grabbed it but didn't have more room, so I turned to give it to Uthgerd to carry, and she was no where to be found. So I did the "waiting" for an hour. Still nothing. Tried again. Nothing. She was with me when I was running across the land, and I didn't get into a fight. She just vanished. I went back to the inn in Whiterun, but she wasn't there. I ended up grabbing a third companion at that point. I got Aranea to follow me, since I had completed her quest earlier in the game. Went through a few dungeons, did some quests. Everything was fine. Well finally, I took off across the mountains again since I wanted to get to the next step in the "House of Horrors" quest line. I checked and she was with me. I took off. It took a while of running, but I finally made it there. I had to kill two bandits when I arrived at the location and an Ice Wraith. I noticed she wasn't helping me. After beating them (which was really quick), I looked around for her. Nothing. I did the waiting thing several times. She still never showed up. I went back to the shrine where I found her originally, and still nothing!

What the heck is going on here?!?! That's THREE followers that have just VANISHED! No bodies, nothing. It stinks, because I like having them with me since they can carry a lot of extra stuff I find. But now I'm afraid to even attempt another follower and give them anything! I've lost some really good stuff because of this! Is anyone else experiencing anything like this?!

As I recall, according to Bethesda before the game came out it was said that followers were supposed to automatically load or "respawn" right behind you if you got too far from them. Not including waiting or fast traveling, but it was said that if you just kept traveling that they'd automatically appear behind you again.. I guess I was wrong or this is a malicious bug, much similar to the Fallout NV companion bug when your companion would still be alive and exist just on the other side of the map (thank god they made companion icons on the map). So if anything, they might have to do something like that for Skyrim.

I could so go for a companion icon right about now! That would be really helpful, since the way they have the follower AI set up is ridiculous

Hahah! Crue, I think you have on your hands a Single White Female.

Maybe if you stopped glitch-mountain-walking through rough terrain the followers could keep up with you. The only times i lose them is when i decide to scale a mountain.

*blinks*

This has caused me untold grief as well. I've learned that running causes lots of troubles, too, though less with my character's dog than with her human follower(s). I've learned to tread carefully in areas that can cause problems (and routinely quicksave).

I don't do the severe mountiain scaling or descending garbage. If you do, more power to you... but I don't, because frankly, it becomes annoying and I hate how my followers stare at a four foot drop like it's jumping out of an airplane. So while it takes longer, I go long way around as often as possible. I try to take the easiest path possible thanks to the stupid AI.

And that still doesn't explain where they go now does it. In the past, I've lost them, and if I "wait" for an hour, they reappear. Now, they just vanish

Maybe not using a follower right now is best, and only try using them for dungeons or something simple, then after you go back to town and sell loot - separate with them. I've went an entire game without using a single companion besides for Lydia (that I accidentally killed, since it's said companions cannot die from ANYTHING unless you cause the final blow is the only way to kill a follower).

Sorry, then. I had no idea how you played. I keep stopping and turning around to make sure they're with me and save, just to make sure they keep following! I hate losing them, almost as much as having to babysit them!

Quick fix to all this is to hit T or whatever it is for consoles and do the default hour rest after scaling something that NPCs cannot traverse or follow you through and they will appear right behind you. Works for me on PC 99%, the other 1% is when I fast travel to somewhere, my follower does not come, so I just reload and its fine. Now in the case you get the message where you can't rest because of enemies, just kill or run away from the encounter and do above method.

Hope this helps!

You probably lost Lydia like I did....I almost missed that she had been killed.

It was in an encounter with a boss that was a Nord and it had been a particularly difficult fight as well as a long time getting to this boss. Lydia was hurt towards the end of the fight and so was I, the boss was almost dead.

I shouted to conclude the fight and I thought she was out of the way - apparently not. I killed her but didn't realize it until I was looting her corpse and found so much other gear when it dawned on me what had happened. Had we just been at the start of our campaign, I would not have noticed the name....just looted the corpse and gone on.

Just an idea of what might have happened to you.