How do I make a PHP session created in a folder to be available sitewide?

BACKGROUND

I have a folder on my site /folder and I wanted to have a session created in this folder only available inside /folder. To achieve this, I did the following:

1. I created a folder for my session outside the public_html directory called "sessionfolder"




2. I created a php.ini file inside the /folder with the content below:

   
   
   

   session.gc_maxlifetime = 864000
   session.save_path = '/home/website/sessionfolder'




3. Before creating the SESSIONS, I call this PHP snippet below:

   
   
   

   session_set_cookie_params(864000, '/folder', '.website.com', 0, 1);
   ini_set('session.use_only_cookies', 1);
   ini_set('session.gc_maxlifetime', 864000);

Everything worked well at this point, my SESSIONS were created and only available in /folder.

THE PROBLEM

Now, I want the SESSION created in /folder to be available in /folder2 and /folder3.

To fix this, I changed session_set_cookie_params(864000, '/folder', '.website.com', 0, 1); to session_set_cookie_params(864000, '/', '.website.com', 0, 1);

and deleted the SESSIONS in /home/website/sessionfolder.

This worked on my PC, maybe because I cleared my cookies and sessions or for whatever reason; but then I started receiving calls that they cannot login anymore. They are simply redirected back to login page with no error message which is obviously a SESSION issue.

My Question

How do I update my solution to ensure it works for new and old users while achieving the objective (SESSION created in /folder being available in /folder2).

Thank you!