My companion won't wear her armor

Question

For some reason, Lydia won't wear her armor when I give it to her. I've tried just your basic steel stuff, Elven boots and gauntlets, and a myriad of other things and none of them equip. When I bring up her inventory, the shield, jewelry, and weapon I've given her has a little arrow next to it to show it's equipped. This arrow doesn't appear on any of the armor items. I've tried taking the items away from her and giving them back; removing everything except armor from her inventory; telling her to leave and then making her follow me again—none of them have worked.

I'm starting to think she just hates me (I do scream expletives at her every time she blocks a doorway or does something else stupid). But seriously, she needs to put on her armor. Help please?

Answer 1

She won't use Elven stuff because it's weaker than her heavy type Steel armor, I guess because she's skilled in Heavy Armor and not in Light Armor. I've given her Dwarven stuff and she equipped it on the spot myself.

As for why she did equip the elven helm, well she doesn't have a helm at all in her default gear so any helm is better than what she has no matter the stats.

Answer 2

Lydia has a set of default armor that you cannot see in her inventory (unless she's dead). She'll only use stuff that is better than what she currently has. Try giving her something better than steel (higher armor rating). Then you'll see her put it on.

Answer 3

Have you tried dying after giving her the armor? I was in a Dwemer ruin with Illia, a mage I'd picked up near Riften, and as soon as we left the deepest part of the ruin she took off her Mages robes in between load screens and ran around like an exhibitionist, though she had equipped the necklace and ring I'd given her earlier. I couldn't do anything to get her to put her clothes back on until I died in the next ruin we came upon. The autosave kicks in at the ruin entrance and bam, suddenly she was wearing the new robes.

Answer 4

If you are on PC, the TCG Tradable Companion Gear mod might help you out.

Answer 5

I just discovered how to force Lydia wear light armor on the PC. Open the console by pressing ~, then click on Lydia to target her, and type: forceav lightarmor 120.

This will give her a light armor skill of 100 and she will start wearing any light armor you give her (like Glass etc.). If she is still wearing Steel then type removeallitems on the console before giving her the armor you want her to equip.

Answer 6

You can remove all of your companion's default armor by opening console with the ~ key (above Tab on your keyboard) then by clicking on your companion, in this case Lydia, and typing removeallitems and pressing Enter. Now you will be able to place whatever you want on them.

As a warning, if you remove their armor & weapons they will lose their infinite arrows and you will need to replace them every time they run out.

Important: Make sure to remove all items from your companion's inventory before doing this because you will lose them!

Answer 7

Elven Armor is light armor, thus it has a lower armor rating than Steel and Dwarven. As stated above, she wore the Elven Helm because she does not have a default headgear. I'm sure you could even make her wear an ugly Leather Cap :P

Answer 8

I've experienced all of the problems the respondants have mentioned...but she is finding that Illia has developed a preference to go around naked. I have this problem too and have tried all the normal tricks that are mentioned above, but it seems to be a bug resulting from a female nude mod. Try removing this mod and I believe the problem will be resolved.

Answer 9

I've found that you can equip Serana with about any armor that you want (including custom armor in the Steam workshop)... on the PC it does require some console commands to be used. Usually for a follower to wear items it has to be a higher rating, but from the console you can removeallitems 0 to drop the vampire armor (in the case of Serana). Once that is done you could openactorcontainer 1 and put into the inventory whatever armor you want the follower to wear. I found a good example of Serana with custom armor (along with some other followers):

_{(source: virtualsecrets.com)}

Answer 10

After you marry Lydia, she will open a new shop to make a small profit.

• Bring her with you as your follower, make her wear another type of heavy armor, such as Ebony, then make her leave.
• Immediately after that, see what she has for sale. She will still be wearing the Ebony and her default Steel Armor will be available for sale.
• Buy all of it and keep it elsewhere. Sometimes she’ll have more than 3 items of similar armor.
• After that, trade back the Ebony Armor from her, and she will be naked.
• Give her anything you want her to wear. (I gave her Vampire Lord Armor, and she looks smexy.)

This works with console too, providing you have married Lydia.

Answer 11

This is a bug experienced by ALL players, usually after you've been playing a while and have swapped out armor and weapons numerous times. First of all, after a while they will refuse to take anything you try to give them, so you have to throw it on the ground and tell them to pick it up, which often results in the item being considered 'stolen' even though you crafted it yourself, and a guard will run up and take it while it's on the ground and tell you, "don't let that happen again." Then you'll start noticing that even if they're carrying the items you gave them, they will refuse to use them. There are some tricks that will occasionally work but often not, especially with certain items, and this is an ENORMOUS time waster and extremely frustrating.