Galaxy S4 - 4.4.2 update adds Internet bookmarks I can't delete???

Copy/pasting my chat with ATT tech support. Apologies for the lack of formatting

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Thank you for your patience! Your AT&T Representative will be with you shortly.

Welcome! You are now chatting with 'Christian Duquense '

Christian Duquense : Good afternoon Bud, I'll be happy to help you get those bookmarks removed from your browser.

Christian Duquense : What browser are you currently using on your phone?

bud: "browser"

bud: or "internet" the default browser

bud: att pushed out android 4.4.2 and it of course came with a crapload of bloatware

bud: most of it i can disable but the browser bookmarks are set in stone somehow

Christian Duquense : Nothing is set in stone Bud, we'll take a look at the settings of the browser and see if we can remove them through there.

bud: sounds good

Christian Duquense : Alright, lets bring up your browser and we'll start by going into the bookmark folder where we can edit and delete them.

bud: done

Christian Duquense : Alright, from here, all we need to do is tap and hold on the bookmark we want to get rid of and it will give us the option to do so.

bud: nope. that works with bookmarks i create, but the new 4 bookmarks that kitkat installed there is no option for delete

bud: only option for these 4 new bookmarks are: open in new window, share via, add shortcut to home, set as homepage

bud: regular bookmarks have Edit and Delete options, these new bookmarks do not have those options

Christian Duquense : Alright then Bud, I'm looking through everything I can for the S4, I know there is a way to remove those bookmarks.

bud: it's probably important to know that these bookmarks auto-installed specifically with the new android 4.4.2 update

Christian Duquense : Understandable and I'll defiantly note that this was caused by it incase anyone else comes with the same question.  Alright Bud we're going to check one of the settings in the phone itself, lets head to Settings > Applications Manager > All Apps from there we're going to be looking for a specific app we're going to at least disable if not remove.

bud: ok there

Christian Duquense : ok from there we're looking for an app called com.android.providers.partnerbookmarks that is the app we can disable that will at least disable those bookmarks in the browser.

bud: ok done, do i need to reboot

Christian Duquense : You can if you feel the need to Bud but lets bring up the browser again and see if the bookmarks are still there.

bud: yes still there, still not delete-able. rebooting

bud: rebooted, opened browser, bookmarks still there, still cannot delete

bud: cannot change order even!

bud: cannot move to another folder

bud: they are still hard-coded

Christian Duquense : Alright then Bud, I'm going to see what I can do if Samsung has listed anyway of removing them.

bud: ok - i should mention the bookmarks, 3 are AT&T specific and one is Yahoo homepage

Christian Duquense : I know the ones you're referring to Bud and I'm looking for all solutions to have them removed.

Christian Duquense : So far I am not seeing anything for removing the bookmarks other than what we've already tried, I do see that some customers have messed with the actual coding of their phones but I can not guarantee it would work in this case nor if the phone would work properly if done.

bud: turning off that application does not work

bud: even after a reboot, no effect

bud: so how are these not set in stone?

Christian Duquense : I have seen that other Android users, have done the exact same thing and were able to remove the bookmarks with no problems.

bud: precisely what steps did they follow after turning off the app

Christian Duquense : They did the same steps we did, rebooted the phone and were able to disable the folder in the browser from being seen.

bud: folder?

Christian Duquense : the bookmark folder.

bud: how do I delete the top level bookmark folder??

Christian Duquense : In this case Bud, the steps we did before, disabling the app would of removed the bookmarks folder from the browser, these are the exact same steps other android users have done after they did a phone reboot.

bud: it's not a folder

bud: the 4 new bookmarks in question are in the root "bookmarks"

bud: stopping the app neither removed the bookmarks or opened up the ability for me to delete

bud: can we escalate this issue please

Christian Duquense : Alright then, I'll bring you over to a floor supervisor as soon as possible.

bud: you can get back to me by email if that helps, i don't have to solve this immediately but if you can open a ticket number

One moment while I transfer the chat to 'Tiffanie Ure(LEAD)'.

Welcome! You are now chatting with 'Tiffanie Ure(LEAD)'

Tiffanie Ure(LEAD): Hello Bud I am the manager you requested. I see you are having an issue with your bookmarks.

bud: Hi Tiffanie sure am

Tiffanie Ure(LEAD): So with bookmarks we are not able to take them off. I do apologize for the inconvenience.

bud: Is that the AT&T official stance, that these bookmarks are set in stone after the kit kat upgrade?

bud: Because that is ridiculous

Tiffanie Ure(LEAD): I do apologize for the inconvenience. I would recommend downloading a different browser like mozilla firefox and Google chrome.

bud: wow.

Tiffanie Ure(LEAD): Third party browsers are not supported by at&t or samsung so therefore we cannot guarantee the full functionality on the phone.

bud: no need for boilerplate disclaimers I get it

bud: Guess I'll go to a brick/mortar store and see what they can do. Hard to believe they would feel the need to hard-code these bookmarks in. I mean look at how much time we've wasted on this and I'm only 1 person.

Tiffanie Ure(LEAD): I do apologize for the inconvenience. What else can I help you with today?

bud: That's it thanks... I guess

I can't even find "browser" on my Note 3 running 4.4.2 🙂

Why don't you want to use Chrome, just out of curiosity? It is actally far better than the base browser.

This is most hillarious - you should publish it somewhere.

I have the same annoyance and although I could not find a solution I found something that at least I can live with. Samsung Galaxy 6 has two folders for the bookmarks at root level "My Device" (where the brilliant minds from AT&T etched their bookmarks) and "Samsung Account" (which is empty). You cannot create any new folder at this level but you can use Samsung Account that is empty to put your bookmarks there. At least it remembers the last place that you checked the bookmarks so you need not see My Device folder ever again. I know is not a solution but "Out of sight, out of mind".