What could cause a follower mod to render as a purple model after load order?

[Eric45]

I’ve been trying to get a custom follower mod to work with my existing load order, but the character just appears as a purple, texture-less model in-game. I’ve checked that the mod is loaded after any body or face overhauls, so I’m not sure what’s missing.

[Scott51]

That purple texture looks like missing textures or a skeleton mismatch. I ran into that once when the follower’s skin textures weren’t included in the pack. I double checked the texture path and it started showing correct textures after I reinstalled with the textures from the pack, not just the mesh.

[MadisonUW]

I had a case where the follower used a different body type than the rest of my load order. Even though the load order loaded after the body overhaul, the skin shader still pointed to files that didn’t exist. I fixed by switching the follower to a matching race or by installing a patch that aligns the race's textures to the body overhaul.

[AdamCH]

I did mess around for days, scrolling forums and trying different saves, and the purple dummy kept showing up. It felt like the body texture was missing. I did a full rebuild of the load order and nothing changed, then I stopped and tried a different follower.

[LilyCW]

Which game are you playing and what mod manager are you using?