I have two follower mods that are supposed to be compatible, and may not actually be the problem. The mods are Ultimate Follower Overhaul and Followers can relax. I also have Unique Faendal, which only changes his appearance.

I decided to go ahead and sleep knowing it would trigger the Dark Brotherhood kidnapping, so I told Faendal to "relax" at the Vilemyr Inn and gather ingredients. I finished my business with Astrid, fast traveled back to the Inn and now the dialog menu for Faendal does not appear. He answers with "Still here" and "Right behind you" when I try to talk to him, but continues to stand around and I cannot talk to him to tell him to follow me again.

I've tried restarting the game, using the moveto player cheat with prid, disabling him and enabling him and nothing works.

Is there a console command that will stop him from being my current follower so I tell him to follow me, or ask someone else, or am I stuck with a non-functional follower on this character.

set playerfollowercount to 0

Thank you! I will try it. The only other solution I'd found was to go back to an earlier save.

Later: That worked, at least partly. Faendal is no longer my follower and I was able to get Lydia with no problem, but the elf is apparently doomed to spend eternity wandering around the Vilemyr Inn in Ivarstead. He still responds with "right behind you" and "are we leaving?" when I try to talk to him. Apparently he hasn't gotten the message that he's been dismissed....