Aela the Huntress disappeared during Battle for Whiterun

According to UESP, if Aela is your wife while you try to claim Whiterun for the Stormcloaks, she may disappear. This is precisely what happened to me. I've tried using the console to bring her to me and it works, but if I tell her to come with me she immediately runs back to Jorrvaskr and stays there, and if I tell her that "it's time to part ways" she just disappears.

Is there anything I can do about this?

Solution 1:

Have you tried setrelationshiprank <Aela's ID> 4?

Solution 2:

I managed to fix it. I had to use the console to make her appear and set her relationship rank to 4 (lover) and then fast travel away from Whiterun and come back. Everything's normal now.

Solution 3:

I had this bug too, and followed the steps above (I quicksaved first). After fast travelling away and back to Whiterun, Aela was at the main gate but the extra lover options weren't there.

When I entered my house, the original Aela was back (with the ebony sword and bow I gave her) and the new Aela copy was there too. Oops.

I loaded back my quicksave, fast travelled away and back to whiterun without running any console commands, and Aela was back in my bed waiting for me, all the wife options there and her ebony sword and bow in inventory.

So in the end the bug worked itself out. I attribute it to the fact she didn't want to partake in the slaughter of Whiterun's people since she was a part of it. (it's a bug but it made sense too)