Breaking the Upload Limit

Sorry. I know this one’s been beaten into the ground. After trying all variations of the php/php5.ini suggestions with no luck, I finally called my host (1&1) and was informed that there is no way around the upload limitation with shared hosting. So…I am able to upload larger files via FTP into wp-content/uploads. There are a few sub-directories in there. I have tried to upload into uploads, as well as the sub-folders. The result is always the same: They don’t show up in my WP Media Library in the control panel. Thoughts?