Settings on php.ini ignored
Solution 1:
write a file in your webserver called test.php:
<? phpinfo(); ?>
Then open it in your browser
there is a section
Directive Local Value Master Value
where you see the values, of all variables and where they are set: Local Value means, set in .htaccess or inside the php-script with ini_set()
also try http://php.net/manual/de/function.ini-get-all.php to find out the source of the content of your variables.
i once had a stupid error, where i tried to set upload_max_filesize to 200M: i wrote "200MB" in php.ini, but it must be just "200M" php interprets the incorrect value "200MB" as 0. Maybe some of this helps
Solution 2:
Run php -i
in the terminal and it will flag if you have any syntax errors in your php.ini. Such errors make Apache to not parse (ignore) directives quietly.