Photoshop 2026 (v27.5.0) Plugins menu greyed out when home directory is on external volume - Mac Mini M4, macOS 26.3.1

Hello,

I am experiencing a known bug with Photoshop 2026 (v27.5.0) on my Mac Mini M4 running macOS 26.3.1, where the entire Plugins menu becomes greyed out as soon as any plugin is installed.

My setup:
- Mac Mini M4, macOS Tahoe 26.3.1
- Booting from external SSD (my home directory ~/Library is located on the external SSD)
- System/Applications are on the internal NAND
- Photoshop 27.5.0, installed via Creative Cloud

The problem:
- After a fresh Photoshop installation, the Plugins menu works correctly on first launch
- As soon as I install any plugin via Creative Cloud (e.g. PiXimperfect Compositing), the Plugins menu becomes permanently greyed out
- This happens regardless of whether Photoshop runs natively (ARM) or via Rosetta
- The root cause appears to be that Photoshop registers plugins in ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/UXP/PluginsInfo/v1/PS.json with the path "$localPlugins/External/...", but cannot load them correctly when the home directory is on an external volume
- Emptying PS.json manually restores the Plugins menu, but it gets disabled again after any plugin installation

I have already tried:
- Multiple clean reinstalls of Photoshop (removing all preferences and plugin folders)
- Running Photoshop with Rosetta enabled
- Redirecting the plugin folders to the internal NAND via symlinks
- Resetting all Photoshop preferences

This appears to be a known bug affecting Mac Mini M4 users with external home directories on macOS 26. I found similar reports in the Adobe community forum (reference: ADB-28196624-T1B3).

Could you please help me resolve this issue or escalate it to the engineering team?

Thank you!