Shared hosting issue - no root directory access - file upload - php

Question

When I tried uploading to /non_public_html/ the support team from my hosting team said that:
. Unfortunately, I have some bad news. It seems that you will not be able to move that file through a script, because of shared hosting restrictions. In order to have "www-data" permissions you would need to have a VPS package, so you could get root permissions.
So I can't upload to outside of /public_html/ it seems.
However when I try to upload to public_html it still fails, this is my code:
$PICTURE_UPLOAD_DIR = '/public_html/my_uploaded/';
$PICTURE_MIMES = [
'jpg' => 'image/jpeg',
'png' => 'image/png'
];
$image = $_FILES['image'];
$imagepath = $image['tmp_name'];
// Undefined | Multiple Files | $_FILES Corruption Attack
// If this request falls under any of them, treat it invalid.
if (!isset($image['error']) || is_array($image['error'])) {
$ojson['error'] = 'Invalid parameters'; $finish();
}
// Check $image['error'] value.
switch ($image['error']) {
case UPLOAD_ERR_OK:
break;
case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE:
$ojson['error'] = 'No file sent'; $finish();
case UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE:
case UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE:
$ojson['error'] = 'Exceeded filesize limit.'; $finish();
default:
$ojson['error'] = 'Unknown errors.'; $finish();
}
// You should also check filesize here.
$size = filesize($imagepath);
// $size = $image['size']; // dont trust $_FILES
if ($size > 1000000) {
$ojson['error'] = 'Exceeded filesize limit.'; $finish();
}
// DO NOT TRUST $_FILES['image']['mime'] VALUE !!
// Check MIME Type by yourself.
$finfo = new finfo(FILEINFO_MIME_TYPE);
$mime = $finfo->file($imagepath);
// if ($ext = array_search($mime, $PICTURE_MIMES) === false) { // this doesnt set $ext
if (false === $ext = array_search($mime, $PICTURE_MIMES)) {
$ojson['error'] = 'Invalid file format.'; $finish();
}
$ojson['$ext'] = $ext;
$ojson['$mime'] = $mime;
// generate random file name
while (true) {
$filename = generateRandomString().'.'.$ext;
$pathtarget = $PICTURE_UPLOAD_DIR.$filename;
if (!file_exists($pathtarget)) break;
}
$ojson['$pathtarget'] = $pathtarget;
$ojson['$imagepath'] = $imagepath;
// $getimg = getimagesize($imagepath);
if(is_uploaded_file($imagepath)){
$ojson['isuploaded'] = true;
} else {
$ojson['NOTUPLOADED'] = true;
}
if(move_uploaded_file($imagepath, $pathtarget)) {
$ojson['ok move'] = 'ok';
} else {
$ojson['failed move'] = error_get_last();
}
move_uploaded_file continually fails, and error_get_last() is always printing:
move_uploaded_file(): Unable to move '/tmp/php7G5KMy' to '/public_html/my_uploaded/Q9BEsUkDre.jpg'
isuploaded is always true. I am so confused, may you please help.