Post variables disappearing.

I've got an ajax call that sends two arrays of data. Portals and Stubs.

The headers look like this:

portals[630][lat] -36.876755
portals[630][lng]: 174.767649
portals[630[photo]: http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/34nlTLv5ueIf4NksgJt5XzpEACGwWPCFqjyj0mgQLJYSJns03-LjzI6nr7fw64cgyfLfgU2OtDnPYG5a58Cxxj6zLa4
portals[630][name]: Eden Garden
portals[631][lat]: -36.873148
portals[631][lng]: 174.761531
portals[631][photo]: http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3EsLuaes-vXrvC-lfcA4-va4l8uoiC3uEys28q_7njbfMSpTKrbLsiSrvBSGAYB8lOtRGMGS_--R10GsNSlQ1PTrtw
portals[631][name]: Gordon House - Wesley Dementia Care
stubs[0][lat]: -36.865096
stubs[0][lng]: 174.77066
stubs[1][lat]: -36.872709
stubs[1][lng]: 174.766448
stubs[2][lat]: -36.864204
stubs[2][lng]: 174.770893
stubs[3][lat]: -36.875467
stubs[3][lng]: 174.73618
stubs[4][lat]: -36.861377
stubs[4][lng]: 174.769936

Code (markup):

in my php script I have

$portals = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'portals', FILTER_DEFAULT, FILTER_REQUIRE_ARRAY);
$stubs = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'stubs', FILTER_DEFAULT, FILTER_REQUIRE_ARRAY);

Code (php):

$portals always has a list
$stubs sometimes has a list, sometimes it's NULL.
Even if I have no data, I'll always send an empty array so it should never be NULL

When I output array_keys($_POST) only shows stubs sometimes which makes me think that it's not a filter_input problem.

I can't see anything that would indicate why $stubs is failing.

If I save the post variables to a file it's 192kb
My hosting settings: post_max_size 8M (Default)
So that shouldn't be a problem.

Is there a gotcha with $_POST and arrays that I need to know about?

Normally by the time I've tried to put down all the relevant info in a query I've found the thing I've tripped over. Not this time. I don't normally work with such large amounts of data but it's really not that much, surely.

EDIT: I've found my culprit!

in my PHP settings I have max_input_vars = 1000 which means it's been dropping off large portions of even the Portals array and explains a weird bug I hadn't worked my way through to.

So being on shared hosting I can't just dive into php.ini

I've added this to my .htaccess and will keep an eye on it.

<IfModule mod_php7.c>

php_value max_input_vars 5000

</IfModule>

Code (markup):

 

That would work, instead I've just batched it up and made additional calls.
Not as tidy but it does the trick.