MySQL: LAST_INSERT_ID() returns 0

The problem seemed to be in MySQL's phpmyadmin config file PersistentConnections set to FALSE which resulted in a new CONNECTION_ID every time a query was issued - therefore rendering SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID() ineffective.

more info in the subsequent topic Every query creates a new CONNECTION_ID()

Also thanks dnagirl for help

Just my 50 cents for this issue, I simply noticed that you won't get a LAST_INSERT_ID greater than 0 if your table has no AUTO_INCREMENT set to an index.

I wasted about half hour on this. Turns out I keep getting a LAST_INSERT_ID() of 0, which for this table is actually ok.