My current follower is Benor. He's been around since the first month I played Skyrim. He replaced Lydia after she died in Mzulft.

Now I'm on the quest prophet and Serena doesn't want to tag along as long as Benor is there.

If I dismiss him, can I recruit him again later? Is there any chance he dies in te meantime?

I don't really know that, but I had Erik as my follower and when I dismissed him at Fort Dawnguard he never left the valley. I'm not sure if it's a glitch or a bug with my game, but he stayed their right at the enterance ( going out) While Derik finished the DG MQ and some of the side quests. I took Serana back to Fort DG and parted way's ( she had some things I wanted to give Erik that would have made Derik over encumbered) and took Erik Back up as a Follower.

As I said I don't know if that is a glitch in my game...or the game, but you could alway's save, dissmiss Benor, at Fort DG, leave...IDK go to Riten or something wait or sleep and then go back and see if he is still there. I mean it's worth a try. You should be able to pick him back up as a follower.. but that is what the save is for.

I believe some of the PC follower mods are running into a bit of bother about this attribute of Serana's.

are you on the PC? If so have you used a follower mod? If you are and can take more then one follower. Dismiss Benor while standing next to Serana. Get Serana into your group as a follower and then talk to Benor before he has a chance to return home and get him back in your group.

I've been completing Dawnguard with Serana, Lydia, Estria and Uthgerd all at the same time. I just had to dismiss everyone first and then get Serana as a follower. Then I added the others back.

Otherwise where did you get Benor as a follower? If you want to make sure he is there when you get back, take him back to where you recruited him and dismiss him there. That way he won't get "lost" on the way home.

Yeah, that's what they have been saying on Nexus, it's just been catching a few people out. I played it on the Xbox and I'm in no hurry to get it for the PC going to wait until some mods come out so I can tweak it the way I want. Been using UFO and My home is your home mods.

I've dismissed Benor ( for now) and taken Serana as a follower. He left ford dawnguard direction Riften and then probably Morthal. I came across him as he was walking near Riften and tried something out.

I could not take him back as a follower unless I first dismissed Serana, but when I tried that he did still carry all the stuff I gave him ( such as some of my precious swords and staves). So shouldn't be a problem to Get him back as a follower after I completed Dawnguard

Followup question: I reached the same point in Prophet and chose a different path:

Serana says, "I'm not travelling with her, I don't trust her," looking at Jenassa, my constant wingman (uh, wingmer). An eyeroll later, Jenassa and I are like, suit yourself vampire chick- have fun with your biggest fan Isran while we do the quest ourselves.

So, will Prophet be doable with just my real follower, or or am I forced to take Serana?

At some point you are going to have to have Serana along. I don't know about Prophet, but Chasing Echoes is going to require Serana. Most of the DG MQ is going to require Serana.

And yes, Jenassa is a great follower.

Thanks for the heads up! I can accept going down to the Soul Cairn with just Serana, which is anologous to having just a Companion for the werewolf quests. Guess I'll see how far I can get on the other DG stages.

(BTW when I have had had to part with Jenassa for the Companions, she has such poignant goodbye dialogue. I hate to do that to her!)

There are times when you can have Serana and your follower both together and times when Serana insists on being your only follower. She also refuses if you say you want to part ways, so at certain points in the quests there is no way to dismiss her and go and do something else, so be prepared to be stuck with her whether you want her along or not. I also made sure to dismiss my follower at his home destination so he had no potentially dangerous traveling to do.

Followers may also have reverted to their original gear when you next catch up with them, but they should have everything you gave them in their inventory and will equip it themselves a short while after you get them to join you once more.

i never hadto leave my follower dbi when i played except when i went into the soul cairn infact i have both serena and the dbi following my dark elf right now

My problem is that I have Aela and Serana at the same time and they're always making out.
Every time I look back, one of them has her hands all over the other; they're giving backrubs or flirting.
Driving me nuts.

Hmm...maybe I just dreamed that...