[BUG] Cowork: Cannot mount folders from external volumes (/Volumes/)

[kjgarza]

Preflight Checklist

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

What's Wrong?

Cowork fails to mount folders located on external drives. When selecting a folder on an external volume via the folder picker, the RPC mount fails with a "source path does not exist" error.

The VM appears to have no access to /Volumes/ paths, making it impossible to use Cowork with external storage.

What Should Happen?

Cowork should be able to mount and access folders on external volumes that are mounted in macOS Finder, just like folders in the user's home directory.

Error Messages/Logs

RPC error: failed to mount ../../Volumes/Verbatim-Vi560-Media/Downloads as Downloads: source path does not exist: /mnt/Volumes/Verbatim-Vi560-Media/Downloads

Steps to Reproduce

macOS (version)
Claude Desktop (latest)
Cowork research preview
External drive: USB SSD mounted at /Volumes/Verbatim-Vi560-Media

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

2.1.12 (Claude Code)

Platform

Other

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

Tested with and without spaces in volume name — same result. The VirtioFS mount appears restricted to host paths that don't include /Volumes/.

This is a common workflow for users with large file collections (photos, documents, receipts) stored on external drives who want to use Cowork for organization tasks.

Workaround: Copy files to local storage first, but this defeats the purpose for large datasets.

[Adithya188288]

Facing this similar error in claude desktop, any solutions ?

[baumpi]

Its a problem for mac os users. the still say its only possible to add "home directory". We need external drive support

[mcc311]

same here

[luiscapobianco]

I created a directory in the root folder and symlinked from the external drive to the root folder on the internal disk, and it worked.

My user is luiscapobianco on an external drive called T7

So I created this directory structure on the main drive:
/Users/luiscapobianco/Library/Application Support/Claude/vm_bundles/claudevm.bundle

And in the following directory:
/Volumes/T7/Users/luiscapobianco/Library/Application Support/Claude

I executed the following command:
ln -s /Users/luiscapobianco/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/vm_bundles

[jonathanmalkin]

same issue here

[nolandubeau]

I'm getting this error in a local folder, which happens to be a code folder containing Claude.md etc. I usually work on this within the app using Claude Code CLI, but I'm trying out Cowork to see what additional capabilities it might provide to working in the code folder context.

[eliseorobles]

same issue here

[sonthomsen]

yes this is a big issue for me - I work mainly on my external drive

[luiscapobianco]

The symbolic link from the external drive to the internal drive works perfectly. I have been using it for over two weeks now with no issues.