I apologize if this has already been discussed (please point me to the proper topic. Thanks!)

When I accept the Bring Aela her shield quest from the smith (I receive her shield from him) my nice new Steel Shield vanishes from my inventory. It does not return later.

I have tried giving my shield to my companion before accepting the quest. I have tried dropping my shield before accepting the quest. My shield disappears, no matter what.

At this early point in the game it is quite a bit of money to replace, and the smith is out of steel shields so I have to buy a banded one.

Any fixes?

That's a strange bug....Have you any mod's installed related to weaponry !!!!!

Or have you tried to reload a previous save wait for 31 days and try the whole thing again ????

Thanks for responding Mark. Nope, no mods installed. It's just the Legendary edition from Steam.

Waiting for 31 days sounds ... interesting. Not particularly doable though (unless I'm mistaken in assuming it means I take a break from the game for a month).

If I recall correctly, Eorlund actually carries Aela's shield beforehand, and it's called "Steel Shield"; it's very possible that he sold you Aela's shield and that's why it's disappearing (it's been renamed).

I'm afraid you'll have to purchase a new shield from a different vendor.

I mean in game days of course...LOL

From the in game waiting menu. Choose your desired time to wait. (I thing the default key is the "T")