Did you start up your game and can’t seem to find that new follower you added or that texture sure doesn’t look like the one you added? Here’s some questions to ask yourself:

• Did you enable the mod in your mod manager (and the plugin if it has one)?
• Did you start the game through your mod manager (specifically through SKSE)?
• Is there another mod that is overwriting the mod you are missing?
• Have you surpassed the plugin limit (which will cause some mods to be disabled)?
• Do you have all applicable patches for that mod?

Did you start the game, go through the Bethesda logo and start getting pumped listening to the theme song, only to realize that, “Wait a second! I’ve been dancing around with a paper towel roll like a sword attacking Alduin (played by my very confused dog) for at least 10 minutes! There is no way this song is that long!”? No just me? Okay, fine, did you sit there patiently waiting for the loading circle to, well, load, but it never did? You, my friend, have experienced the dreaded “Infinite Loading Screen”. This circle of Hell is not as painful as some, but is still frustrating. Here are some of the reasons that myself and others have found that this happens:

• First, make sure that you have actually waited long enough; if you have a lot of mods, especially graphical or ones that add a lot of references to the game, it could take awhile to load.
• You might not have enough memory allocated. Make sure that you have the latest version of SKSE (and that it is configured correctly) and have installed either Crash Fixes (LE) or SSE Engine Fixes (SE).
• Make sure that all of your plugins are clean (run LOOT to be sure) and that you do not have any outdated or duplicate patches. The second part is harder to figure out, but I can give you an example that I encountered: I was using Expanded Towns and Cities and RS Children. Both ETAC and the RSC Patch Compendium had a patch between the two, so I disabled one and voila! No more ILS.
• You may have too many references loading into the game. Read this post to learn more about the reference limit and use this script in xEdit to see what your reference number is.
• Also, I have experienced some random infinite loading screens when fast traveling. I never did figure out exactly what was causing mine, BUT at the time, there were a number of things that were buggy (user error and not enough conflict resolution), so it was hard to narrow down. If you follow good modding practices, your chances of having issues like this diminishes.

• First, check for the same things listed in the ILS section: make sure your SKSE is the right version for your game version, that it was installed/configured correctly, that you don’t have any outdated/duplicate patches, that everything is clean, and that you don’t have too many references.
• Second, make sure that you are not missing any masters. Your game won’t even start if you are missing any masters. (Your mod manager, LOOT, etc will tell you if you are missing a master).
• Third, it is likely that there is a conflict between plugins that is resulting in your CTD. Use tools like xEdit to diagnose these.

This is something that you can fix, and quite easily by creating a custom NPC patch. This is how I do it (I’m sure there are easier and faster ways, but I like this way because it gives me total control over what ends up in the game). I use MO2, so this is specific to that mod manager, but the process should be similar in Vortex.

• Run LOOT and then make manual adjustments as needed
• Make sure you Mod Order (Left Pane) and Plugin Order (Right Pane) are in the same order for anything that touches an NPC record. You will also want to make sure this is in the order that you want it.
• Load up your plugins (all of them) into xEdit and filter by conflict.
• Go one by one down the list and expand only the NPC section of each plugin (many won’t even touch it). Mine were things like NPC overhauls (obviously), Guard Armor Replacer, AI Overhaul, and random quest mods that altered the items the NPCs had on them. Basically, the visuals of the NPC, the patterns they follow (so where they go and when), and items they have on them, all of these are affected.
• There is a phrase you will hear often in conflict resolution for modding: There can be only one! No wait…that’s not quite right…The rule of one! There we go! So, what this means is that whatever plugin you have last in your load order, everything in it (or not in it) is what you see in the game. So, if Brynjolf is supposed to have a letter on him or an ebony dagger because you have a quest mod that adds those, but that is loaded before a mod that gives him a mullet, guess what? Unless you have a patch that combines all of that together, he’s not going to have the letter/dagger (but he will have a sweet mullet, so there’s that). If you have a mod that makes Nazeem swim in the water in front of Dragonsreach but your other mod that makes him wear a polka dot onesie is loaded after? Guess who won’t be doing backstrokes but rather still bugging you about the Cloud District (although in quite comfy clothing).
• So; What do you do? Create a new plugin and copy over the parts that you want! This will make sure that you get all the parts that you want with no issues. I hope this all makes sense, but if not, I’d suggest going here: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/36840.