PHP Safe Mode problem

After encountering the php safe Mode bug that seems to be very common on shared hosts I researched how to resolve it on Drupal .org. 

This is what I did:

• Set chmod on  the /files and /photos directories to 777 - It did not work.   
• Made the directories myself set to 777 and uploaded them - It did not work.
• Tried creating new /tmp directories about everywhere I could think of with 777 - It did not work.
• Asked the host to turn off php safe mode for our drupal instance. - Strangely this did not work either.
• Made an entry in php.ini to turn off safe mode. - Success!

Here's the code I used in php.ini

 safe_mode = Off

Hope someone else can benefit from my three nights of frustration. Quest complete!