Reachwater rock first door won't open although combination is right

This has not happened to me before, however looking around I found this on the UESP Wiki:

A common bug is that the rings on the dragon claw doors may not rotate, or the door may not open after the correct combination is set. Possible fixes are;

• Save and then immediately load that save.
• Load either the auto-save from the entrance, or a save from before you entered.
• Select the right combination and try the claw, then turn each ring once and try the claw again, do this until the correct combination re-appears and try again.

Hope that helps

• UESP Wiki Reachwater Rock Page
• UESP Wiki Bug Page for Puzzle Totems

I too experienced this, and tried everything previously listed to solve the problem. Nothing worked....so I painstakingly attempted to use the glitch where you hover a plate over the surface of the door, and sprint at it in an attempt to glitch through the wall. It took me over an hour to get through the first door. I then realized there were three more doors.... So I figured out a way to use the plate glitch in a more efficient manor. First, you have to have the beast form power acquired from the companions quests. Second, bring a bunch of plates just in case you drop them in the water or they glitch through the wall without you. Get into 1st person view. This makes it a little easier. Drop a plate on the ground, and rather than pick it up into your inventory, hold y over the plate. This allows you to hold the plate in front of you.

Position the plate so that is abutting against the door, and run towards the plate and wall. You'll need to experiment with different methods of running,sprinting, body position, and plate position. After a lot of trial and error, you will find yourself being able to see through the door, sometimes being able to see slivers of information through the door, other times being able to see a lot of info through the door. Once your able to see a lot of info (usually signifying that at least your head has passed through the door), finagle it so that you can still see through without having to keep running towards the plate/door. Basically you need to run or sprint towards the door while holding the plate, continue running into the plate/door until your able to see a decent amount of info. Become stationary while still being able to see through, select your beast form, and use the ability to transform. Once you've become the wolf, you'll see that the transformation has forced more of your body through the wall. Start trying to force your body through the wall by running and strafing a bit. Usually you need to kinda strafe a bit and turn your body perpendicular to the door. Remember, there are 4 doors total and you'll need to come back through two of them, so have enough plates to get through. Also, because you can only use beast form once a day, you'll need to press select and wait for 24 hours before each door after te first. Well there you have it folks. Hope this helps you not spend 5 hours trying to get through like I did!!!!!

This happened to me, so what I did was turn each ring once, then insert the emerald dragon claw, then rotate each ring once again, and inserting the dragon claw again, then rotating all the rings just once again, which returns the correct (bear whale snake) combination, inserting the emerald dragon claw again unlocked the door... It happened again later down the corridor with the ivory dragon claw door which was annoying, so I tried the same thing again, and it worked, although I did get shot by poison darts alot :') Hope this helps!