无法在000webhost中使用会话变量

I have a simple methodology to my page. Log in the user and if the credentails matched, the user is given a session variable “id” which is linked to the database to get info about the user. The thing was running fine on my “localhost” but it isn’t running here. I run:

<?php
  if(isset($_SESSION["user"])){
   echo "the session variable is here!";
   //redirect to another page --probably dashboard or something like that-- 
  }

But when I run the page and I visit to the "Secure" button and see in the cookies section, the session is there but the string isn't print. I tried changing it to:

?>
<script>
alert("The session variable exists");
</script>
 <?php

But nothing gets alerted! I tried accessing the .htaccess file and adding one line that says: php_flag session.auto_start on but it doesn't work. So, what should I do?

NOTE: It is to mention that I have session_start() and I haven't made those beginner mistakes.