Desperate for help here. (Regarding Loud and Clear quest bug.)

[PixiePrincess501]

OK, I have literally spent two whole days scouring the internet for any advice or fix, and I got nothing.
Let me explain my problem: I am starting the Thieve's Guild right now. I just collected all the owed debt in the quest "Taking care of business" and spoken to Brynjolf. He got the money, payed me, and the rest of the dialogue happens. Once finished, it says that the quest has ended, and he asks me to follow him (to the Cistern) to meet Mercer.
Here's where I, and a lot of people online, it seems, ran into my problem. The quest "Loud and Clear" does not start, and I am not prompted to follow Brynjolf by a quest, although he did tell me to follow him.
If I get too close, he stops, turns around, and goes "Hmm?". When I try to speak to him, he only says "Hmm?" like he doesn't know me. I waited for him to walk into the Cistern, but he stays near the entrance, and without moving, again goes "Hmm?". I got a little frustrated, and walked myself into the place, and now everyone is accusing me of TRESPASSING, and even after reloading to see if Brynjolf would move of his accord, he takes out his weapon and attacks me! I checked to see if I caught vampirism, but I'm completely fine, so it's not that. Simply put, if "Loud and clear" does not start, and the quest does not tell me to follow him, I'm stuck right there, without being able to do the rest of the Thieves' Guild questline.

Here is a list of everything I have done to try to fix this:
1) Start from an older save. Nothing.
2) Tried to force-start the quest (The console command should be TG02 5 to iniciate Loud and clear. I get a "not found" command on the console, but if I do TG03 10, it skips me right to Dampened Spirits.) You CANNOT just skip Loud and Clear, this quest will initiate you into the guild, so you're not a trespasser, and get your new armor, quests and such!
3) Disabled/Enabled Brynjolf (Don't worry, I reloaded the save when it didn't work) I can imagine killing and resurrecting him via console will do nothing as well. It seems he's not what we need to trigger the quest.)
4) Looked around online for a patch mod for this quest. There's a couple for some other unrelated quests, but not for this one, sadly.
5) I read something about dirty plugins, so I got both LOOT and SSEEdit to cleanup my mods and plugins. While a couple ones were found and cleaned up, nothing has changed, even after starting an older save, or the most recent one I have, just in case.

And this is where I'm at right now. Although a lot of people are going through this, no one has a permanent fix, besides skipping this very important part of the questline and trying to cleanup their mods like I did.
Someone said that they had a specific mod that caused the problem in their own game, but I actually don't have any of the ones they mentioned. I can past a list of my mod order here if it helps.

Please, please, please help me! I'm at my wits end. I've already done so much in the game, I can't just start from the beginning! (Some people tried this anyway and they still can't progress regardless.) I'd really appreciate the help, and I'm sure the other players that are experiencing this will too!

[Silent Protagonist]

ok you say you are using mods first step lets see your load order get a copy of it and paste it here and lets see if us immersion scientists can help you solve your little problem

[smr1957]

From https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Taking_Care_of_Business Bugs section:

"Sometimes this quest will complete and you will be unable to start the next one, even through console commands. This means that if you go into the Ragged Flagon Cistern, you will be trespassing and all of the thieves will turn hostile.
- This can be fixed by using the console command setstage TG02B 10 and finishing it before entering the Cistern.
- If the step above doesn't work, it can be fixed by using the console command setstage TG02B 0 before entering the Cistern."

NOTE - there may be an error on the setstage commands listed in the wiki - TGO2B is for Meet the Family - so try TGO2 10 and if that does not work, then try TGO2 0. Since I have not personally used these, I cannot verify any of the above commands - either those listed in the wiki that may be wrong, or the ones I have listed - so make sure you save before using.

[PixiePrincess501]

Originally posted by smr1957:

From https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Taking_Care_of_Business Bugs section:

"Sometimes this quest will complete and you will be unable to start the next one, even through console commands. This means that if you go into the Ragged Flagon Cistern, you will be trespassing and all of the thieves will turn hostile.
- This can be fixed by using the console command setstage TG02B 10 and finishing it before entering the Cistern.
- If the step above doesn't work, it can be fixed by using the console command setstage TG02B 0 before entering the Cistern."

NOTE - there may be an error on the setstage commands listed in the wiki - TGO2B is for Meet the Family - so try TGO2 10 and if that does not work, then try TGO2 0. Since I have not personally used these, I cannot verify any of the above commands - either those listed in the wiki that may be wrong, or the ones I have listed - so make sure you save before using.

I don't believe this. setstage TG02B 0 actually worked!!!
This doesn't make sense, I did try this multiple times and it kept saying it wasn't found...
I didn't have to follow Brynjolf into the Cistern, but I went in regardless, and not only does everyone treat me like a member, I now have the quest to get my armor and talk to Delvin and the other character for jobs.
I'm a little paranoid if this fixed the whole questline, so I'll be sure to come back and report if anything weird happens. Thank you so much!!

[HazakTheMad]

Originally posted by smr1957:

From https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Taking_Care_of_Business Bugs section:

"Sometimes this quest will complete and you will be unable to start the next one, even through console commands. This means that if you go into the Ragged Flagon Cistern, you will be trespassing and all of the thieves will turn hostile.
- This can be fixed by using the console command setstage TG02B 10 and finishing it before entering the Cistern.
- If the step above doesn't work, it can be fixed by using the console command setstage TG02B 0 before entering the Cistern."

NOTE - there may be an error on the setstage commands listed in the wiki - TGO2B is for Meet the Family - so try TGO2 10 and if that does not work, then try TGO2 0. Since I have not personally used these, I cannot verify any of the above commands - either those listed in the wiki that may be wrong, or the ones I have listed - so make sure you save before using.

Fixed the inconsistency, I have an account over there.

[smr1957]

Glad that it is fixed, PixiePrincess!

[PixiePrincess501]

OK, here's my report so far:
Using setstage TG02B does seem to skip talking to Mercer and the whole Loud and Clear quest as if you already spoke to him.
However, because this step is skipped, you will need to manually start Dampened Spirits with the console as well (TG03 10, to be specific.) Otherwise, if you talk to Mercer, nothing happens (He won't explain the deal with the Meadery and send you to Maven Blackbriar.)
If you use TG03 10, the quest sends you straight to Maven, and she'll give you the quest you need to proceed.
I'll continue to play and report again in a while.

This quest is still broken for a lot of people, tho. It seems the only thing working is using the console, and not everyone knows how to or can use the console. We really do need a permanent solution for this. I do hope someone can fix this, or make a patch/fix in the form of a mod or something...

[smr1957]

Keep us informed, someone else may come up with something better. I know I was not able to find anything other than what I posted (or the obvious go back to an earlier save - which you tried). The only other thing might be a mod conflict that is preventing it - and that could be a pain in the butt to track down for this particular issue (and would not explain others having the issue unless it is a mod common to all that encounter this).

[PixiePrincess501]

Ah, I forgot to mention:
It seems that using this method completely skips the quest with the beehives at Goldenglow Estate, so you're pretty much screwed if you wanted to collect some of the special items there. I do believe it's also bad if you have Legacy of the Dragonborn, as I read online that there are items you need to collect there.
Can you stake out the place after the "quest" is finished, or will you be attacked?

[PixiePrincess501]

Well, here's an update: I'm finishing the Thieve's Guild questline and so far the only other problem was having to console open the door to Calcelmo's lab because the guards did not show up, but this may be a different problem and not related to my original post, so disregard it for now,
If anyone knows a way to fix the Loud and Clear bug, or knows if a patch mod was recently made, we'd be very grateful for the help.

[HazakTheMad]

Originally posted by PixiePrincess501:

Well, here's an update: I'm finishing the Thieve's Guild questline and so far the only other problem was having to console open the door to Calcelmo's lab because the guards did not show up, but this may be a different problem and not related to my original post, so disregard it for now,
If anyone knows a way to fix the Loud and Clear bug, or knows if a patch mod was recently made, we'd be very grateful for the help.

I have that problem everytime I do the quest, the way I fix it is make enough noise to attract
the guards and they open the door to let me in and attempt to kill me.

[PixiePrincess501]

Originally posted by HazakTheMad:

Originally posted by PixiePrincess501:

Well, here's an update: I'm finishing the Thieve's Guild questline and so far the only other problem was having to console open the door to Calcelmo's lab because the guards did not show up, but this may be a different problem and not related to my original post, so disregard it for now,
If anyone knows a way to fix the Loud and Clear bug, or knows if a patch mod was recently made, we'd be very grateful for the help.

I have that problem everytime I do the quest, the way I fix it is make enough noise to attract
the guards and they open the door to let me in and attempt to kill me.

The thing is, there ARE no guards! There is one solitary guard patrolling the entrance to the lab, but the mage guards that should be there are not, in spite of the noise I made (I tried using the various traps, and I can't even control the spider since the door will never open.

[HazakTheMad]

Originally posted by PixiePrincess501:

Originally posted by HazakTheMad:

I have that problem everytime I do the quest, the way I fix it is make enough noise to attract
the guards and they open the door to let me in and attempt to kill me.

The thing is, there ARE no guards! There is one solitary guard patrolling the entrance to the lab, but the mage guards that should be there are not, in spite of the noise I made (I tried using the various traps, and I can't even control the spider since the door will never open.

That is very strange, this quest is one of those that is very glitchy and never seems to be
completely fixed (the only other one like this is "Blood on the Ice" quest)

[Nabinkemper]

To get into the Museum and his lab, I usually pickpocket his key.

[Anarch]

Late to the party i guess but still i run to this bug for the first time in my life and it drives me crazy maybe cause i didn't bother much with Thieves Guild in previous playthroughs (and for a good reason it seems). Anyways the same bug as OP posted after "Taking Care of Business" quest completed i can't start the "Loud and Clear" quest (is not triggering at all) probably is one of my mods. I did a lot of digging in forums and i discovered that many people who had this bug also were using some mod that modify Whiterun in someway (crazy i know right). The only mod that i use that modify Whiterun in my case is JK's Skyrim.
Also here is my mod list for anyone that could kindly help me locate what mod it might causing that bug.
https://modwat.ch/u/laz50
EDIT: I finally found out what was causing it for me it was this mod:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/39218?tab=posts
So anyone using this mod with similar problem you have to use the optional .esp fix V2 in the download page because the main file's esp messes it enables e3demothief and e3demomaraudersblackfallsbarrow leading to this bug.

[HazakTheMad]

It is just a vanilla bug.