Skyrim: Stuck in Third-Person Mode? Here’s How To Fix It

Skyrim has its fair share of bugs and glitches. Some glitches are visual in nature like Water flickering that we covered in one of our previous guides, and some are completely game-breaking. One of those game-breaking bugs and glitches is being stuck in a third-person view and unable to interact normally with objects in the game. It can happen randomly but most of the time the bug happens as soon as the mining cutscene ends. Before we start analyzing the issue in more detail we’re going to cover the basics. Let’s see how to fix being stuck in a third-person mode in Skyrim. 

Stuck in Third-Person Mode in Skyrim- why it happens? 

The issue of being stuck in the third-person view most often happens after you’re done with mining, chopping wood, or mounting a horse. The issue appears especially often if you’ve attempted these activities in first-person mode, something happens at the end of the cutscene and the camera is unable to return to first-person view and constantly centers on your character in third-person view. 

The issue is not only with the camera, often, as soon as your camera is stuck your controls are not working properly and you have issues activating certain other objects and NPCs as well. You can see how this would make it difficult for you to continue playing and affects your overall experience adversely. Luckily there are tons of solutions for this problem out there and something ought to work for you!

How to fix the camera being stuck in the third-person view in Skyrim? 

You can fix Skyrim camera issues by reloading, using console commands, and employing various other mechanics in order to “cheat” the game into resetting your camera. Now that we’ve covered the basics let’s see the details. 

1. Reload the previous save 

This seems like a no-brainer but it’s actually the most straightforward way to fix the camera issue. If your previous save game is not that old this is the most simple solution. I would advise you to quicksave before you attempt mining, chopping wood, and riding a horse as well to save yourself some future trouble. 

2. Activate an object in-game that forces your character to go into a third-person view 

This next solution often works in a sort of “fight fire with fire” way. If you have any kind of object that forces you to go into a third-person view nearby I would strongly advise you to try to move toward it and activate it. Any kind of object like a forge, alchemist table, or arcane enchanter works. 

If you don’t have any of those nearby, which will happen more often than not, you can spawn one arcane enchanter right in front of you by using commands. Simply type player.PlaceAtMe 000BAD0D and one arcane enchanter should appear in front of you. Try interacting with it and hopefully, your camera should be unstuck. 

3. Try using various console commands 

When it comes to being stuck in the third-person view any command that forces your character and the camera to change works as well. Since there are plenty of commands that work, we’re going to least each of them and describe what it’s supposed to do. 

• Pushactoraway 14 1337 this command will launch your character in a random direction, your character will ragdoll on the ground for a bit, and then when it gets up the camera should be reset 
• EnablePlayerControls or EPC command should return the ability to move and interact with the environment after a third-person bug has occurred. The impact of changing the camera is limited though. 
• Tfc command will enable a free-flying camera, in order to fix the third-person view bug you will need to enter the command two times. The first time should enable the free-flying camera and the second time to disable the free-flying camera and reset your perspective.

4. Go into Werewolf or Vampire Lord form 

This fix is only available to players who have werewolf or Vampire Lord form at disposals. Both forms will force your character to go into third-person view again and when the effect expires the camera should reset. 

Simply activate the power to transform and then wait for 24 hours in order for the effect to disappear. Once the effect is gone and you’ve transformed back into a human or whatever race you’re playing your perspective should be reset once again. 

5. Try fast traveling 

This might not work depending on the location in which you’ve gotten stuck in third-person mode. If you’re stuck in a peaceful area with no enemies nearby simply open your map and fast-travel to any location. That should unstuck your character and you should proceed as normal. 

To sum everything up, being stuck in third-person mode is caused by many things but often happens after mining, riding a horse, or chopping wood. There are plenty of solutions available but the easiest approach is simply to reload the most recent save.

If reloading the save will cause you to lose too much progress you can always try any of the solutions that we’ve offered and something is bound to work for you. To prevent the issues from happening in the future use the quicksave feature, often. Especially before attempting actions that force you to go into a third-person view. 

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