Sorry if this has been posted before.

I know I'm not supposed to cheat, and I don't because it ruins the game but if I get killed one more time just to turn around and find my follower gone I'm going to tear my hair out.
I'm up north Skyrim. It's snowing and Sven and I are hunting Horkers.
I'm about to place an arrow between one Horker's eyes when I get jumped by a tiger - Where's Sven when I need him?
I manage to do the tiger in with a bit of effort then go looking for Sven.
He's stuck between 2 rocks, running for his life.

Then we were in a place where they had a gate with spikes on it that closed on you when you stepped on the floor plate. I stepped over it. Sven stepped on it. GRRRRR

If anyone else is having this problem I discovered some code that will help and I don't consider it a cheat.

Open the console, click on your follower and you'll see a number. Write it down. This is your followernumber
Then type in prid followernumber
then type moveto player

Any time you loose your follower, you can open the console, press the up arrow and bring back the last command moveto player.

Oh, as for the traps. tell your follower to wait here. step over the trap and walk to where it's safe, then do that command, and tell them to follow you.
it'll save a lot of aggravation.

I so wish I could bind this to a key without the console. I start out every game by setting this up.

My followers constantly disappear, too, and dont return even after days of waiting
Seriously, they should automatically teleport to player when you go throught load doors

You can use the "bat filename" command for less tedious console use, by the way: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Console#Using_Batch_Files_With_the_bat_Command

I'm not on PC, but I find that if I crouch into a sneak to get around a trap, my follower will shadow my steps.

I've only noticed this with my latest, post-1.5 character, who is also my first to use followers in a big way (1st Lydia, then Brelyna).

@the OP: since you're using console commands I assume you're on PC, if so there's a mod for Follower Trap Safety that will keep them from setting off traps from pressure plates and whatnot. Works like a charm.

This^. It works most of the time. When it's obvious that it won't work then just sprint over the trigger, wait for your follower to get hit by it, and then wait for an hour.

And usually waiting for an in-game hour or two will bring your follower back to you. It's annoying but not game breaking.

Thanks for the link Wereta, and thanks to all for the other info too..

This works most of the time I've found, and I believe it worked prior to 1.5 too...I've been able to successfully navigate my follower past traps well prior to 1.5, anyway. Maybe I've just been lucky.

Although there is the occasional trap design that will foil even that. I ran into one last night in Volskygge--one of those pressure plates that slams a spiky wall into your face when you step on it. Usually I can coax Erik the Slayer past those, no problem. (It's fire pressure plates that are his one weakness...don't ask why, I don't know. When he sees one, he just has to stand on it. It's a sickness.) This one though was positioned in the middle of a hallway, and something about the navmeshing there meant that Erik wanted to go straight through it, rather than creep around the sides, for all my attempts to coax him through otherwise.

Thus leading to about five minutes of me standing further down the hall and facepalming while Erik slammed a spiky gate into his face repeatedly. Basically, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTMwjYgJsFQ. ...In fact, I just noticed that video was recorded in the exact same spot I was having trouble with. Must be something about the navmeshing there.

ROFL

Some never learn from their mistakes, huh?

I found that Lydia does an better job following you than Aela. This is probably as Lydia follows very close and Aela at some distance, this often cause her pathfinding to fail.
She will also never jump down even if it's no other path to reach you.

Wonder if it's any mods who improves follower AI?

I'm having that problem with Annekke now. I'm used to Vilkas, he's annoyingly slow sometimes (especially since he follows a light armored woman), but he mostly shows up in time. Annekke, on the other hand... Even though she follows a heavy armored character, I still find myself standing in the middle of the road wondering where she is. And sometimes when I just rush past certain enemies I don't want to fight at the moment (like trolls when I'm out of healing potions), she comes by them much later and starts shooting them, making them come after me.

I don't think I'll keep her around much longer. To bad. My character needs a BFF and Annekke seems like a nice person.

Lol, every time I've ever had Aela as a follower (and that would be, only on the Companions quests where it's mandatory) she is constantly ramming into me from behind and getting in my way. I found her to be almost as bad as Barbas in that respect, Maybe she's better outside of quests that she herself has given you, but... meh. I don't like her anyway because of the way she used me for her own personal vendetta against the Silver Hand.

We did one quest that put us in that cave in Eastmarch with all the spiders, I think that's the one... must've been for one of the Totems of Hircine since I can't imagine why she would have wanted to go there otherwise. Anyway there's a chain you can pull to unlock a secret door that leads to a vampire lair. On your way in to that through the narrow passage there's some kind of trap that makes flames shoot up all around you. I used to love going through that and activating the trap and then moving on just enough so that she would be stuck right in the flames long enough to start vocalizing her displeasure at what it was doing to her. Simply because for the rest of the dungeon crawl, I'd have her taligating me ALL. THE. TIME.

You can use command mode to direct your followers around traps; it's also useful in certain ruins, like Anslivund*, where there's a room filled with pressure plates -- just direct them to the end of the room, and they'll run full speed to where you pointed them, hitting all the plates but getting over them fast enough that it doesn't matter. Also good for halls with swinging blades.

Mind, most quest followers can't be commanded so it doesn't work for them (Eola and Brother Verelus are the exceptions). Mercer has a tendency to walk into the trap he just warned you about.

I've noticed that all followers are pretty good at avoiding bone chimes, so long as you move slowly.

*Which also boasts the most annoying room for followers to navigate -- a tall room with catwalks; you move up ramps and through side passages to the top, where you cross a bridge to the exit door. That last walkway is littered with plates that cause spiked walls to swing down or fire to spurt up. Followers will try to run to the end and will likely get knocked off the walkway by the spiked walls, then run back up to you. And if they get to the end? Draugr Deathlord. That they back up to fight -- into a spiked wall.