[BUG] Claude Desktop macOS rejects folders on external volumes (/Volumes/) — regression of #20382

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Claude Desktop's Local mode rejects any folder on an external/secondary macOS volume (/Volumes/...) with the error: "The selected folder is outside your home directory. Only folders within your home directory can be used."
This is the same root cause as #20382, which was closed as fixed in v1.1.886. That fix addressed Windows secondary drives but macOS external volumes are still blocked. A commenter on #20382 (giantsgreen) reported this same macOS issue but it was not addressed before the issue was locked.

What Should Happen?

Local mode should allow selecting folders on external volumes that the user has full read/write access to, not just folders under ~.

Error Messages/Logs

"The selected folder is outside your home directory. Only folders within your home directory can be used. You can select a different folder."

Steps to Reproduce

Connect an external SSD/volume to Mac
Open Claude Desktop → start a new chat
Click folder dropdown → select "Local"
Browse to any folder on the external volume (e.g., /Volumes/ExternalSSD/project)
Error dialog appears immediately

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

1.1.2321 (495628) 2026-02-06T22:01:17.000Z

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

<img width="264" height="235" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/172bd280-ae36-4f19-8db5-2b2145cf7d35" />

Claude Desktop / Claude CoWork

https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/20382