Index: trunk/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/plugins/PluginHandler.java
===================================================================
--- trunk/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/plugins/PluginHandler.java	(revision 17393)
+++ trunk/src/org/openstreetmap/josm/plugins/PluginHandler.java	(revision 17395)
@@ -947,5 +947,5 @@
      *
      * @param monitor the progress monitor. Defaults to {@link NullProgressMonitor#INSTANCE} if null.
-     * @return the list of locally available plugin information
+     * @return the list of locally available plugin information, null in case of errors
      *
      */
@@ -955,5 +955,4 @@
         }
         try {
-            Map<String, PluginInformation> ret = new HashMap<>();
             ReadLocalPluginInformationTask task = new ReadLocalPluginInformationTask(monitor);
             Future<?> future = MainApplication.worker.submit(task);
@@ -962,10 +961,11 @@
             } catch (ExecutionException e) {
                 Logging.error(e);
-                return ret;
+                return null;
             } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                 Logging.warn("InterruptedException in " + PluginHandler.class.getSimpleName()
                         + " while loading locally available plugin information");
-                return ret;
-            }
+                return null;
+            }
+            Map<String, PluginInformation> ret = new HashMap<>();
             for (PluginInformation pi: task.getAvailablePlugins()) {
                 ret.put(pi.name, pi);